CAMDEN — He looks like a 7-week-old puppy, with droopy ears and saucer eyes, but run a hand along his spine and the years he has accumulated become evident. The 15 year-old Skippy is no youngster, and he is partially deaf. On top of that, he is cherished by his owner, Jeanette Frost, of Warren, and when he bolted from her car folllowing a minor fender bender July 6, she was at wit's end.

The crash took place on Route 1 in Camden, just near the intersection of Curtis Avenue. Frost was traveling north in her 2008 Ford Ranger with Skippy, heading to a picnic. Her family was in another car behind her, also heading to the picnic. Ahead, a line of cars had stopped, waiting for a car to make a left onto Park Street.

Frost rear-ended a 2013 Chevrolet sedan operated by Amber Keithen, of Searsport. The impact set off the air bags in Frost's car, and, "that's when Skippy decided to take a jump through the window," said Camden Police Officer Allen Weaver, Jr.

While the crash was minor and there was minimal damage to the vehicles, an afternoon of anxiety set in, as the Waldoboro family spent the next seven hours hunting for Skippy.

He tore behind Camden Service Station like a rocket, said one witness. The station stores trailers and cars behind the building, and beyond that, it is all a mess of impenetrable high summer growth — scrub trees, tall grass and weeds and swamp, all that make the Camden Bog a patch of wilderness in the town's residential neighborhood.

The family spent hours calling for him, helped by nearby neighbors, and an employee of Camden Service Station. Penobscot Bay Pilot posted on its Facebook page a photo of Skippy, and from there, the Skippy saga went viral. Thousands of people were tuned into his disappearance and shared his photo in every direction.

Later, the family returned with a bowl of water, food and a blanket that had the scent of Frost, and placed it all under one of the trailers at the station. By 7 p.m., they began hunting and calling again. Frost's daughter, Denise Leary, and her children and friends were there, along with Frost, as well as several other dogs, who joined the search.

Then, Denise's phone rang, and it was Angela Davis at the other end. She had just heard on the police scanner a call to a Camden home, whose owners had found a little dog. Having seen the contact number for Denise on Facebook, she called Leary to say maybe, just maybe it was Skippy.

Denise then called Knox County Regional Communications, the dispatch service for area police, fire and EMS. A dispatcher there gave her the number of Sharon Corbett and Frank Long, and it was quickly determined that it was Skippy at their house. 

"He was staggering down Union Street around 5:30 p.m.," said Long, describing how he first spotted Skippy.

Long had been heading home from work at Landings Marina, driving north on Union Street when he spotted a little dog weaving around the center line of the road in front of EBS. The temperatures on July 6 were in the upper 80s and low 90s.

Long scooped him up, took him back to his house, and gave him water. How Skippy had made it back across the busy Route 1 on a hot and busy July afternoon is anyone's guess.

"He curled up on the rug and was loving the air conditioning," he said.

"We gave him Alpo, and he had a bath," said Corbett. "But he was sad."

They put Skippy out in the yard and he started heading down the road, so they took him back inside, and called the police. Connections were quickly made, and in a matter of minutes, a small car filled to the brim with Skippy's family poured onto the front steps of Corbett and Long's home, with everybody hugging Skippy, smiling and crying.

Frost, who had been a nervous wreck, took Skippy into her arms and held him tight. He nosed her cheek, and they all went home, to sleep really well that night. 

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Editorial Director Lynda Clancy can be reached at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.com;706-6657.