Fickel, who said no one was injured in the accident, quickly looked around for Aries and was relieved to see him sitting on the side of busy Rochester Road in Clawson, Mich.
“As soon as he saw me, he turned and left,” Fickel said. “I’m in the middle of the road, and I can’t run past him.”
Fickel called out to Aries, but he kept running and soon disappeared from sight.
Fickel stopped his car, and immediately searched several buildings where he had last seen his 4-year-old pit bull lab mix pup.
Then the police showed up, and she told an officer her dog ran off.
“I couldn’t find him, and I had to talk to the police and my insurance company, so I decided to do it one by one,” he said, explaining that the damage to the vehicles was minor.
The officer called in a description to a dispatcher so other officers could find Aries, he said.
Then, about 20 minutes after the accident, Fickel got a text and a call from Travis Ogden, the owner of Hounds Town Metro Detroit — the doggy day care Aries goes to once a week.
Ogden gives Fickel some stunning news: He’s with Aries at doggy day care, a mile down the road.
“I started crying,” said Fickel, who shared her story with WXYZ Detroit news.
Ogden said a staff member in the front office noticed the dog running and jumping outside the front glass door.
“He goes straight to his safe place and tries to get their attention,” Fickel said.
Ogden said he let Aries in, and the dog ran up to him and licked his face.
“I love that dog and I knew right away it was him,” she said, noting that Aries has been a regular at Hounds Town for about three years. “He is a really social dog who is always ready to play and have fun with other puppies.”
He was distraught to see Aries without Fickel, but when he learned about the accident, it started to make sense, he said.
“The dogs are really smart and know their routes,” said Ogden, who has about 45 dogs at a time at the day care. “They’re always looking out the window.”
Studies have shown that dogs have extraordinary sensory abilities that may allow them to pick up on the north-south flow of the planet’s magnetic field. Stories about dogs that get lost and find their way home suggest that they have an internal compass.
Last year, a golden retriever in Ireland walked 40 miles in 26 days to find his owner, and a dog in Texas rang the doorbell at his former shelter after he was adopted and went missing. In 2020, a dog that had been missing for three weeks turned up at the Walmart register where his owner worked.
Ogden said Aries likely fled the scene of the accident out of fear, hoping to get to a place where he could feel calm and safe.
“Aries heard a loud noise, and that was a great shaking in his world,” he said. “He was running to get out of there and back to where his friends were, where he could find someone to help.”
Aries was given water after his sprint, and the staff played with him in the lobby until Fickel picked him up.
“So many things could have gone wrong because he had to cross a busy four-lane road to get to doggy day care,” she said. “I’m really grateful to know he’s safe in a place he loves.”
Fickel said her dog wasn’t wearing a car harness at the time of the accident, but after what happened, she plans to put Aries in one in the future.
He said it was love at first sight when he adopted Aries as an 8-week-old puppy in April 2020.
“He always has a lot of energy and loves to play tug of war and solve puzzles with treats in them,” she said. “Then he’s tired, he wants to rest with me on the couch.”
When he brought Aries home after his unexpected adventure, he said he felt the stress and panic of the day.
“I kissed him a lot and told him he was a good dog,” she said. “And that night, he got a whole taco.”
