Many parents will testify that it takes only a moment for a tragedy to occur. You can be watching over your kids exhaustively and within a moment and in the twinkling of an eye, they are gone.
That is what happened on November 29, 2022, when Abigail, a 7-year-old girl and her 4-year-old sister Cecilia vanished from their parent's home in Louisiana. The young girls' parents, Mary and Justin Bourg, tearfully said their Golden Retriever family dog named Artemis first ran into the woods to explore and the girls followed him. The incident occurred in Folsom, a small village with a population of 780 people (2021) in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, United States.
The girls disappeared around 5 PM. The sun had gone down but they hadn't returned home and their parents were getting concerned.
Mary reported her girls missing to the police immediately. She also took to social media asking the community to pray for them and keep an eye out for anything suspicious.
It wasn’t long before many locals volunteered to search for the missing girls, who they knew had to be terrified. In addition, helicopters, drones, search-and-rescue dogs, cars, and 25 people on horses were involved in the search.
Later that evening, a volunteer found the girls deep in the heavy woods! However, Artemis the Golden Retriever, despite being the one who lured the girls into the woods, was crowned the real hero.
When they found them, Abigail was really calm but her younger sister Cecilia was on the ground scared, according to Rooster Cowart, the volunteer who first located the girls. According to the girls' mother, Mary, Cowart was one of the first people to reach out after she asked for the community's help on Facebook. When Cowart called, he simply said, "I can help. Can I get an address?" Mary wrote on Facebook.
After being sent the address, Cowart entered the woods and began searching for the girls until he found them. According to him, it was a wild hog who chased him out of the woods that got his attention. He assumed that the girls must have been close by because the hog seemed nervous. And Artemis the dog was also credited for protecting the girls from those dangerous things.
After the hog chased him out of the woods, Cowart went back to his vehicle to get his firearm and find three other volunteers, Michael Leake and his wife April and Chris Populis to help. It wasn’t long before they located the girls. Cowart said Artemis almost ate him up when he tried to approach the girls. Artemis was barking while circling the girls and was not going to let Cowart near them. However, Michael's wife, April, was able to get up next to the girls and Artemis subsequently allowed the others. At this point, everything just fell right into place. The girls were brought back home safely.
In the aftermath of the incident, many local residents have been reaching out to the family, who say they are still in the process of recovering from the traumatic experience, to offer meals, bless the girls, pamper Artemis and give him extra treats.
