BOZEMAN, Mont. -- "Oh yes, oh Bud. Good boy" said Phil Nichols, petting his dog Buddy lovingly.

Phil was picking Buddy up from the vet Saturday afternoon, but this wasn't a regular check-up. In fact Buddy had been missing since last November.

It started when Phil was driving from Helena to Arizona. Buddy jumped out of the camper behind Phil's truck when he stopped in Dillon.

"If the door had been open, he knew I'd got out so he would get out" said Phil, trying to guess just how it was that Buddy escaped without him noticing.

He didn't realize Buddy was gone until he reached Idaho Falls, and went to get him from the camper.

Phil immediately drove back to look for his best friend.

"I got back up there, and then I spent a day and a half looking for him, and looking for him and putting ads every place" Phil said, of his search efforts.

But Buddy was nowhere to be found. Distraught, Phil left and continued down to Arizona.

And things got worse. Phil totaled his truck and camper in Idaho, and had to go to the emergency room for a head injury.

With no truck, no camper and no Buddy, Phil was stuck. His son flew up from Arizona to help him finally make it there.

And buddy? His luck was just as bad.

Buddy had broken his foot badly. The Chelsea Bailey Butte Silver Bow Animal Shelter found him late December 40 miles from where he jumped out of the truck, a little worse for wear.

They figured out Buddy belonged to Phil from all the ads he placed a month earlier, so they gave him a call.

It was good news, but the condition of Buddy's foot was looking bleak. They estimate he walked 130 miles with the broken foot, and the wound was badly infected.

The animal shelter was going to amputate Buddy's leg, but as a last resort they gave Dr. Mark Albrecht a call.

Dr. Albrecht is a veterinarian at the Gallatin Veterinarian Hospital in Bozeman. He took a look at the x-rays.

"You can see that kind of his toes got separated from his ankle" said Dr. Albrecht, pointing to the separated bone on the x-ray sheet. 　 But Dr. Albrecht didn’t want Buddy to lose his leg, so he performed surgery on it and installed a device called an external skeletal fixator.

The fixator is made up of several pins that go through the leg to hold the bones in place. Dr. Albrecht used bone grafting to fuse the bone together.

Buddy’s leg was saved, and in about eight weeks the pins should be out and he’ll be able to fully walk again.

"He really needed to get fixed in a lot of different ways” said Dr. Albrecht. “So he's gotten his leg fixed, and his scars are healing, and face injuries are healing and he's gaining some weight which is good."

After going through all that, Phill and Buddy were finally re-united.

"I'm grateful to get my dog back” Phil said, adding “I may have lost a lot of other stuff, but he's been a good friend, just a real good friend."