8-Year-Old Girl Overjoyed To Be Reunited With Dog After Car Accident

Thanks to some kind-hearted Oklahomans, a Fort Smith family has been reunited with their dog Bentley, after he went missing over a week ago. 

“I am so happy now,” eight-year old Lilly Evans said. "I feel like everything is going to be okay.”

News on 6 was there when Lilly held her best friend Bentley in her arms for the first time. Her mom, Brandie Evans, said the pup went missing after their family was involved in a horrifying wreck off of I-40 near Warner last week. 

"I think we drove over a price of sheet metal, and the truck slid completely to the right and next thing you know — the truck is flipping and turning. I see my Dad just laying there and didn't know what to do" Brandie said with tears in her eyes. 

Brandie, Lily and her one-year-old son were okay, but Brandie's dad was taken to a Tulsa hospital and their dog Bentley was nowhere to be found. Muskogee County Commissioner Ken Doke was the first person to drive up on the scene and immediately Lilly asked him for help. 

"She was pretty distraught, and so I wanted to talk to her and see if there was anything I could do, and all she wanted was her dog back. So I promised her we would find them,” Doke said. 

Doke posted Bentley's picture on Facebook and within days, people across Green Country shared the post thousands of times. However, after 10 days and still no sign of Bentley everyone had started to loose hope. That’s when some service workers saw a dog in some brushes just a mile from where the wreck happened near Janet Cain's property. 

"The dog ran out from under a bush out there in the brush,” Cain said. She said she made a call to Doke and arranged with Brandie to surprise Lilly with Bentley the next day after they fed him and washed him. 

“He was put in the right hands at the right time," Cain said. "In the darkness of the world right now that's the brightest thing."

Brandie said she is thankful Bentley is back where he belongs and he has helped the family heal from the heartache they have endured. 

"He is a member of our family and we need him right now, and with my father still in the hospital, Bentley is going to make everything better. He was meant to come home,” Brandie said. 

Brandie asked for people to continue to pray for their family because her father is still in the hospital in a medically induced coma.