TINTON FALLS — She’s home!
Daisy, the 1-year-old chihuahua on the loose for nearly a week, was reunited with her owner on the night of April 18, a tearful reunion near Naval Weapons Station Earle. Beth Lane, Daisy’s owner, brought the dog home to a few new toys, a banner reading “Welcome Home, Daisy!” and — crucially, after five days in the wild — a bottle of flea and tick shampoo.
Daisy went missing on April 14, bolting out an open door and crawling under a fence and onto restricted Naval Weapons Station Earle property. Lane credited the Monmouth County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, county animal control officer Mike Flynn and volunteer group Tri-Borough Lost Dog Trackers with conducting a widespread, public search for the missing dog.
“It felt impossible,” Lane said in an interview. “I’m still pinching myself, as I try to unpack all of this. It’s surreal.”
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Beth Lane was reunited with her missing dog, Daisy, on Friday, April 18, 2025. Daisy, a 9-pound chihuahua, was missing for nearly a week after crawling under a fence onto restricted Naval Weapons Station Earle property in Tinton Falls.
The situation was looking bleak on April 17.
Daisy hadn’t been seen in three days, and Lane started to resign herself to the worst-case scenario. “I don’t have a good feeling about this,” she thought. But then, there was a break in the case.
The Monmouth County SPCA had arranged cameras near a series of humane traps in the area, where Lane had laid blankets and food. One of the cameras caught Daisy nibbling, and Lane stayed up most of the night watching the feed, cherishing every glimpse she could get of the dog she adopted last year. Daisy seemed to be seen on both sides of the fence protecting NWS Earle.
“I joked that Daisy left to join the Navy,” Lane said, “but went AWOL multiple times.”
The next day, she made a decision: She was going out there herself. She spent most of the day holed up at the Capelli Sports Complex, near the part of the fence where Daisy had been seen on camera. There was a near-miss: She approached the fence when Daisy was seen on the camera on Friday afternoon, with clothes slathered in grease and fat from a rotisserie chicken and a container of bone broth, which she poured around the fence.
Around the same time she got a call from a passerby, who spotted Daisy on nearby Wayside Road. Just then, she heard Daisy’s tell-tale bark. But she moved too quickly, startling the dog.
Daisy took off running.
“It felt like I’d spoiled this, that I chased her away and she wasn’t coming back,” Lane said.
Beth Lane was reunited with her missing dog, Daisy, on Friday, April 18, 2025, after a weeklong search. Daisy, a 9-pound chihuahua, had last been seen crawling under a fence onto Naval Weapon Stations Earle in Tinton Falls.
When she got word Daisy was spotted again a few hours later, Lane was already on the way over. She lay down in a soccer field, trying to calm her nerves so she wouldn’t startle Daisy again. But as she rolled over to her stomach, she heard the barking once again.
Daisy was just a few feet away.
Lane lay back down and listened to Daisy bark and growl, letting her gradually creep toward her.
“The next thing I know, she was on my face and in my hair, crying,” Lane said. “I just grabbed hold of her and didn’t want to let her go.”
Mike Davis has spent the last decade covering New Jersey local news, marijuana legalization, transportation and a little bit of everything else. He’s won a few awards that make his parents very proud. Contact him at [email protected] or @byMikeDavis on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Missing NJ dog Daisy reunited with owner after running onto NWS Earle
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