Debbie Dawson said she was driving north in the express lanes on Interstate 95 on Saturday, as the regular lanes were in standstill traffic, when she saw a car cross over the pylons right in front of her.
"I saw her car coming and I just said, 'I'm going to die,' and honest to God, that’s all I remember," she said. "And then I just remember waking up in the middle of 95."
Dawson said she blacked out on impact, and later learned her car flipped over four times. The crash shattered her windows and that's how her beloved puppy, a 15-month-old black Labrador named Moose, took off.
Her first instinct was to run after him, but a witness stopped her, cautious of her injuries.
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"I didn’t care. I wasn’t thinking about myself, I just could think about him," Dawson said, visibly emotional.
She was taken to the hospital, miraculously, with only minor injuries.
But Moose was missing for days. Although he normally wears an Apple AirTag, it came off during the crash, leaving his family unable to find him.
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"We were riding around moments after we were done searching, it's lightning and thunder and starting to rain and knowing this guy was out there, it was terrible," Corey Dawson, Debbie's husband, said.
Dawson's children took to social media to circulate flyers, hoping someone would spot him.
"I was getting phone calls in the middle of the night, same as my dad, with people who were trying to join in and give us tips and tricks," their son Walker Dawson said.
On Tuesday, they got the call they were waiting for.
Moose was found hiding in the brush off the highway about a mile from the crash site. His paw pads were raw from running on the hot pavement, and he was traumatized and scared, but otherwise OK.
The Oakland Park firefighters who were on the scene that day helped bring him home.
"They promised me that they would find him and they did, and I cannot, cannot thank them enough for all their work and hard effort, not giving up. They all deserve medals," Debbie said, with Moose now snoozing contentedly on the couch between her and her husband.
The Dawsons are thankful their family is whole again, overwhelmed by the support and now sharing one message for drivers.
"The takeaway for me would be, because a lot of lives have been changed in this thing, is if you would just look when you’re driving, that’s the reality," Corey Dawson said.
The Dawsons tell NBC6 they are still waiting on a crash report from Florida Highway Patrol.
