Dog 'On a Mission' Finds Owner in Hospital

Dale Franck was worried sick. Around 1:30am Saturday, he noticed one of his and his wife's two miniature schnauzers had vanished from outside their Cedar Rapids, Iowa, home. "I kept checking everywhere, calling out, 'Sissy! Sissy!'" he tells ABC News. Hours later, he got a phone call. Sissy, 11, had been spotted on security cameras entering Mercy Medical Center through automatic doors and wandering around the lobby, 20 blocks from home. It just so happened that Dale's wife, Nancy, was in the same building, recovering from surgery related to her battle with uterine cancer.

"She was on a mission that night to see her mom, but she couldn't find the right elevator to take," Franck says. It isn't clear how Sissy reached her destination. "The only thing I could think of was that Sissy used to ride with me to pick up my wife from work next door to the hospital," he says. "But we've never walked that route before." Franck's daughter went to pick up the lost pup and surprised her mom with a visit before heading home. "My wife was like, 'How'd you get her in here? Did you sneak her under your coat?'" Franck says. Nancy tells KWWL that Sissy's visit was "a big boost—it helped a lot, just to see her and talk to her." (More dog stories.)