Neo had been wandering the ranch land of northern Utah since April 4, when his owner, 47-year-old Joyce Moore of Kelso, Wash., was killed after her vehicle rolled over on Interstate 84.
Lt. Lee Perry of the Utah Highway Patrol said the dog had stood nearby as rescue crews attended to Moore, but fled when someone tried to catch him.
Volunteers went door to door telling ranchers and farmworkers about Neo. One estimated she had spent 60 hours "networking for Neo."
On Thursday, a man at a ranch the team had already visited waved a searcher down, saying a dog had been found in a shed. He said he backed out quickly when the dog growled, latching the door.
It was Neo - wearing the same harness and heart-shaped name tag he was wearing in photos recovered from the wrecked SUV.
"To make something positive out of a fatal car crash, that's about as good as it gets," Perry said Thursday night in a telephone interview. The dog is a bit thin and dehydrated but overall "is in fantastic condition," Perry quoted a volunteer as saying.
Volunteers quickly notified Joyce Moore's sister, Deborah Moore, also of Kelso. A volunteer was going to take care of the dog until Deborah Moore could pick him up.
"There's so much riding on Deb retrieving Neo, emotionally speaking," family friend Barbara Teasdale told the Longview (Wash.) Daily News. "This is a piece of Joyce coming home."
