 |
| MID-LEFT SIDE, HORIZONTAL ASH AND ECHO |
A Bit of Magic
A year ago I played the scratch-off crossword card pictured here and was gifted with my two eldest granddaughters' names, Ash and Echo. Magical! Check out the photo. What are the odds? Was this a comforting message from the girls' deceased grandfather?
A Canine Miracle
We live on a wooded acreage in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains in Oregon. Three years ago, we agreed to pet-sit our son's kids' tiny dog, Steve, while his family went to Iowa for Christmas. Steve weighs five pounds soaking wet and has poor eyesight. He had never been a problem when we took care of him in the past.
This time the little guy managed to run away and disappear before we could catch up to him. It was the dead of winter, and the coyotes had recently killed a small dog a quarter mile down the road in her own back yard. We searched for him frantically all day without luck. That night it poured and the temperature dipped into the thirties. We couldn't imagine what he was going through.
 |
| STEVE |
I spent the next day posting signs the length of our road and all over the small town nearby, calling Animal Control and all local shelters, and posting his picture and info on local Facebook Groups. Steve was chipped and had a collar with his phone number on it and he was wearing a red sweater I hoped would make him get noticed.
The third day I drove down our road, knocking on doors to hand out flyers. I learned he had been spotted by several different people running westward down the road the afternoon he ran away. They said he seemed to know where he was going and he wouldn't let them get near him. That didn't surprise me. He was always afraid of strangers.
Over the next ten days, we prayed for a miracle and continued to post signs and knock on doors, getting occasional leads. One man reported seeing him in the light of a large Christmas display on his way home from work at three o'clock in the morning! People were wonderful about watching for him, but he eluded everyone that spotted him. Then the reports of Steve sightings stopped. We lost hope. An ice storm was predicted for Day 14. The night before, we agreed there was no way he was still alive. We'd done our best, but it was time we all accepted Steve was gone forever.
 |
| STEVE THE WONDER DOG |
Early the next morning we were watching the ice storm forecast on the weather channel when my son called. A farmer had caught Steve and called the number on his collar.
His little red sweater was long gone. Steve had traveled five miles in two weeks and managed not to get eaten by an owl, bobcat or other predator. He was skin and bones, dirty and matted, but Steve the Wonder Dog would be okay.
Three years later, he's still going strong!
7 comments:
I do remember The Story of Steve the Wonder Dog unfolding in real time. It was a miracle he survived. Although the number of heartfelt prayers going out to him were numerous and maybe he became Steve The Invisible Wonder Dog to predators. Just saying...
Beautiful story about Steve the wonder dog. Even though I had heard the story before, I enjoyed reading about it again. Here's to all the wondering pets and may they find their way home again.
Judith, your theory about Steve's invisibility is as good as any other explanation. There were so many people praying for him to make it!
I'm with you, Diana! All three of our pets are rescues who were strays without chips. They are all so social, all housebroken, and the dogs both showed signs of having some training, so we felt kind of guilty about adopting them, as someone may have been searching for them. But both dogs were sent up from southern California after a month unclaimed in shelters there, so who knows what could have happened?
Over the years I've found at least four dogs who were chipped and returned to owners. Many places offer free chipping clinics for pets.
Sarah - to me this sounds like a wonderful children's story told from Steve's point of view. Even though you can never find out what actually happened to him, maybe you could make up an "out of kindness of strangers" story about Steve's adventures (finding a shed door cracked open where he could bed down at night - or someone leaving food out under a sheltered bush, even though Steve wouldn't let them get near - and finally finding his way home). And who knows, maybe the red sweater scared off predators. But unexplained miracles are wonderful to cherish, as well.
I do believe in miracles. For me, even the rising of the sun every day is a miracle given the way our universe was formed.
Your story about Steve the wonder dog really tugged at my heart. I can't begin to imagine the fear and sorrow of 14 days of him missing in the dead of winter. I agree with Deb Noone who suggested you write a kindness-of-strangers children's story about him. It would be wonderful!
We've always taken in rescues as well, cats instead of dogs. I know the fear of a runaway in the dead of winter. Our mama cat, Kali--the one who fostered our other cat, Layla at the shelter--ran out the patio door in that 2016 winter where it snowed and then stayed frozen on the ground for two or three weeks. She'd only been with us for two weeks and was still adapting to the new environment, separate from the foster home where she lived after her rescue, had her kittens and fostered Layla. I was panicked and wondered how she would find her way home when she had barely mapped out the inside of our little apartment. And more than that, how a little 7 lb cat would survive with temperatures in the low teens all day and through the night.
I immediately called the chip ID people so they could put out an alert and walked all around the complex calling for her and letting my neighbors know (over 200 units) to look for her. The PetSafe people said to put out some of her litter in a bowl on the patio and it would lead her home. They suggested that a cat can follow her own scent in the litter for up to two miles away. We did that along with food and water.
Four hours later I heard a very slight meow on our patio. I looked outside and couldn't see her. I stepped outside and listened again. I knew she was near, like a ghost cat, but I couldn't see her. Then a tail swished underneath the barbeque cover. She had sheltered on top of the propane tank, balancing precariously but keeping a little bit warmer under the cover.
I don't know if she'd been there for a long time or had just made it home. But we were ecstatic. In the three years we've had her only one other time has she slipped out a door. But that time it was into a hallway and she immediately stopped and looked up at me. I didn't try to catch her; I knew she would run. I said in a tear-strained voice: "Please come back inside. Please don't run." Surprisingly, she turned around and went back inside.
A miracle? Perhaps. A bond that was stronger than whatever pulled her out the door? I think so. Or a combination of the two.
Deb and Maggie,thank you for the idea of writing a children's book about Steve. Actually, a couple people did leave food out when they spotted him, and one put out a live trap in hopes of catching him. I didn't want my post to be too long so I left a lot of details out.
Maggie, I am so glad Layla came home! Thank you for sharing the tip about her scent on the litter to draw her home. I didn't know that and will file it under "Just in Case!".
Post a Comment