Little Sahara, the 17-month-old Peekapoo that went missing Tuesday after a bull mastiff mauled another dog at the Middleton Dog Park, has been found safe and sound and returned to her owner.

"I've been getting burrs out of her all day, and she's been resting and just taking it easy," Sahara's owner, Jacquelyn Piraino, said Saturday.

A visitor to the dog park on Highway Q found Sahara about 6 a.m. and called Piraino, whose number was listed on flyers posted at the park.

Sahara wriggled under the fence surrounding the dog park after the 130-pound bull mastiff, Igor, mauled a 13-pound Bedlington terrier named Lily Tuesday night in front of its owner. Lily later had to be euthanized.

Igor's owner, Gary Lohrke, faces a $361 fine and said Friday he plans to contest the Middleton police department's recommendation that his dog be euthanized. Igor has a history of attacks on people and dogs.

In 2007, Lohrke signed an agreement to leash and muzzle Igor when the dog was away from home. In an interview with the State Journal Friday, Lohrke said he let Igor run freely in the park because he believed the agreement applied only in the city limits and he thought the park was outside the city.

Since the incident, Piraino said, neighbors and other visitors to the dog park reported seeing Sahara, but the dog always ran away. Friends and strangers mounted an intense search for Sahara, even bringing some of their dogs that were friends with the peekapoo.

"We figured if she wouldn't come to us she'd come to them," she said.

Aside from a slight limp, Piraino said, Sahara seems "so far okay.

"She's subdued. I don't know what lasting damage there might be," Piraino said. "She seems real content to just (lie down) right now. She survived four nights out there in fields that have coyotes in them."