The News Journal from Wilmington, Delaware • A26

26A SUNDAY, APRIL 25, 2021 SUNDAY NEWS JOURNAL Say what you will about social media, but lost pets like Fisher the Boston terrier have no complaints. The Battista family of New York City was vacationing in Ocean City on July 4, 2020. Their dog Fisher learned how to open the door of their 27th Street rental and let himself out overnight, Matthew Battista speculated on GoFundMe. He and Elissa Battista, who have an infant, immediately began a big push to him. They saturated social media, posted hundreds if not thou- sands of signs and canvassed Ocean City and surrounding towns.

Fisher was featured on the "SeaBoard," a billboard. The Battistas extended their stay and hired a tracker. They even worked with an "animal communicator," hop- ing to get information telepathically, but Fisher remained missing for months. The Facebook group the Battistas created, "Find garnered over 8,000 members. It remained active as time passed, with members sharing posts of Boston terriers found across the country daily.

Wayne Horn was outside working on his motorcycle in Baltimore City April 20 when he noticed a dog in the road. "I called him over because cars speed up and down my road," Horn said. "He came over to me, so we gave him water. He laid down and was con- tent, he want to leave." A friend stopped by and posted some photos of the dog to social media. Facebook lit up with "That's Fisher!" and a microchip scan con- it.

"From the moment I saw the photos I knew it was him from the markings and his little tongue sticking out," Elis- sa wrote. Two hundred-and-ninety days af- ter Fisher went missing, he was found. Nearby friends of the Battistas' went to pick up Fisher and Elissa drove hours to collect him, according to a Facebook post. A heartwarming video of the reunion shows an elated Elissa greeting her long-lost pup for the time. Where Fisher was all those months remains unknown.

Elissa posted on Facebook that a veterinarian suspects Fisher had some frostbite on a paw, "meaning he was either kept outside a lot wherever he was or was roaming much longer than the one day. But he will be okay and we are happy he is safe and otherwise healthy!" The number of dogs stolen annually in the U.S. is about 2 million, according to the American Kennel Club. AKC Re- unite President and CEO Tom Sharp said the thefts often involve high-val- ue dogs, such as Boston terriers. Shannon Marvel McNaught covers Sussex County and surrounding areas on the Delmarva Peninsula.

Contact her at shannon.marvel@doverpost.com. Wayne Horn (back right) and the friends of the Battistas' who came to pick up Fisher in Baltimore City. COURTESY OF WAYNE HORN Beloved pet missing from OC found 290 days later Shannon Marvel McNaught Delaware News Journal USA TODAY NETWORK A heartwarming video of the reunion shows an elated Elissa greeting her long-lost pup for the time. Archaeologists have uncovered the historic home of Harriet fa- ther, new insights into the famed youth and her years learning to navigate the marshy terrain of Eastern Shore. The onetime home of fa- ther, Ben Ross, was found on land that recently became part of the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Dorchester County.

A team of archaeologists began searching for the site in November. When the team returned in March to continue the work, they found artifacts that dated back to the 1800s, including nails, brick, glass, dish fragments and a button. Julie Schablitsky, the chief archaeol- ogist for the Maryland Department of State Highway Ad- ministration, said these artifacts are evidence of Ben cabin and pro- vide new information about life. spent time here as a child, but also she come back and been living here with her father in her teenage years, working alongside Schablitsky said. was the opportunity she had to learn about how to navigate and sur- vive in the wetlands and the she said.

believe this experience was able to her when she began to move people to As a child, Tubman learned how to survive in the landscape of the Chesapeake Bay region. Those skills helped her escape enslavement in 1849 and make her way to freedom in Phila- delphia. She soon returned to Maryland, a slave state, and in the following years rescued about 70 enslaved people in 13 trips. She also helped instruct another 70 people who later escaped slavery on their own, according to the National Park Service. Her daring exploits made her the most famous conductor on the Under- ground Railroad, the network of routes and safe houses that helped guide en- slaved Black Americans to free states.

Tubman would become known as the of her people. ancestors said the discov- ery of her homesite was an mensely important archaeological dis- the location of patri- arch Ben Ross home and artifacts he used as humanized a man responsi- ble for giving us a woman of epic pro- portions, Harriet Ross said Tina Wyatt, great-great- great-grandniece and great- great-great-great granddaughter. Ross and his family were enslaved on the Thompson farm, where Tubman was born in 1822. Tubman and her mother were enslaved by the Brodess family a few years later and forced to move away from the Thompson farm. Tubman was born Araminta Ross, but would go on to change her name to Harriet Tubman after her marriage in the 1840s.

Ben Ross, who felled timber that was used in shipbuilding, remained on the Thompson farm and was later be- queathed 10 acres from Anthony Thompson. will also grant- ed Ross his freedom years after death, in the early 1840s. Those 10 acres are part of the acre Neck property that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service bought for $6 million last year, according to a news release. As a teenager, Tubman learned to navigate the terrain while working with her father.

She may have also learned about the waterways of the East Coast from the free Black mariners who trans- ported her timber to Baltimore shipyards, the State Highway Admini- stration said. parents were among the dozens of people she brought to the North during her danger- ous travels over the Mason-Dixon line. this joyous occasion, more than 160 years after Ben Ross departed his humble cabin never to return, all free- dom- and justice-loving Americans are Ross said Douglas Mitchell, great-great-great grandson. Schablitsky said the discovery is es- pecially important because the area may become inaccessible as sea levels continue to rise on the Eastern Shore. 10 years, we might not even be able to access the site, so important that excavating it she said.

The site will be added to the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway, which traces life through more than 30 stops along a 125-mile scenic drive. HISTORIC FIND Archaeologists discover home of Harriet father Maryland Lt. Governor Boyd Rutherford speaks at the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center in Church Creek, Maryland on Tuesday. The discovery was the former home of Harriet Tubman's father Ben Ross. LAUREN DAILY TIMES A photograph of escaped slave, abolitionist and Union spy Harriet Tubman that was acquired by the Smithsonian is displayed before a hearing of the House Administration Committee in the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill on June 17, 2015, in Washington, D.C.

CHIP IMAGES Photos and artifacts were on display from the homesite of Harriet Tubman's father Ben Ross on Tuesday. LAUREN DAILY TIMES Madeleine Salisbury Daily Times USA TODAY NETWORK DELMARVA.