Miracle Dog

A very unfortunate situation came to our attention last Tuesday night.  Joanna sold one of our dogs called Tris to another family and made arrangements to deliver the dog to them at the beginning of the Beargrease race.  Tris happens to be a bit on the shy side, but while she stayed in their truck during the race, she seemed to be warming up to the new owners quite well. 

The 120 mile mid distance race finished on Monday morning and after the award ceremony Monday afternoon, the new owners headed to Tofte to spend the night.  Tofte is about 40 miles from where we live in Grand Marais, MN.  That night Ryan was taking Tris out of her dog box with the rest of the dogs to empty out for the night and she wiggled away from him and ran off.  He and his wife chased her down the main Hwy, but couldn't catch her.  Later they found her by some cottages at the lake's edge and tried to coax her over to them with some food.  She was heading toward them when someone slammed a door nearby which startled Tris and again, she ran away. 

The next morning they looked all over Tofte driving down any road they could find and alerted the radio station, the police and posted a message on Facebook to have others help in finding her.  After two days they needed to get back home to Wisconsin and left a message for Joanna of their plight. 

We were aghast that this lightly coated dog was missing at a time when the temps and wind chill were reaching record lows in decades, like 60 degrees below zero.  Wednesday morning John and Joanna went down to Tofte to look around for themselves, knowing that Tris would be more likely to come to them than anyone else and praying they would find her quickly so she would not have to be exposed to those frigid temperatures.  There was no sign of her. 

We all prayed the Lord would protect her from wolves and preserve her life.  The thought of her out in that terribly cold weather made it difficult for us to go to sleep at night. 

On Friday afternoon, while John and Joanna were up in Hovland feeding our sled dogs, I was about to take our Irish Setter Scarlett out for a walk when the phone rang.  A lady on the other end asked if we were the ones with the missing black dog.  I said a resounding "YES".  She and her husband were snowmobiling in the Tofte area about to cross a road when a black dog with a blue collar came near them.  They tried to catch her but she ran up the road and into the woods. 

I was ecstatic.  She had survived the cold.  Totally amazing.  My heart was thanking the Lord as I quickly gathered some dog food, a dog dish and some water to bring to her.  I decided to take Joanna's Buick Lacrosse because it already had a dog crate in it.   I hurried as fast as I could down to Tofte, turned up the road to the snowmobile trail and found it only about a mile from the main Hwy. 61.  Taking the dog dish with some dog food, I walked along the road back toward Tofte looking for dog tracks.  I went about a quarter mile down and back up to the car not seeing any tracks. 

About then a pickup truck with a couple from Minneapolis pulled up and asked if I was having trouble.  I explained that I was looking for a missing dog and asked them to call me if they saw her further up the road.  As I was talking to them, I noticed some snowmobilers had stopped at the edge of the road on the snowmobile trail and a man came over to talk to me.  He said it was his wife who had called to tell me they had seen the dog.  What great timing to run into them!!  He explained that Tris had run in the opposite direction away from town around a curve in the road and about half a mile further.  He explained that I would see the tracks going off into the woods on the left side of the road. 

So I drove further up the road around the curve and began driving on the left side of the road with my window down to look for tracks.  It wasn't long before I saw them.  I made a U turn on the road and pulled to the edge to park.  It was difficult to judge exactly where the edge of the road was and I accidentally went a little too far over causing both tires on the right side to sink about 8 inches down off the edge.  I was stuck.  Nooooo, this can't be happening.  I went around the front of the car to see how bad it was and knelt down to shovel the snow away from behind the front tire with my hands to try to make a path to drive back out.  I got back in the car and tried going backwards and forwards.  It was no use. 

Suddenly that same pickup that had stopped before and gone up the road came back.  Seeing my predicament, they stopped to see how they could help.  Unfortunately, John , the husband said he had just put his jerk strap in another vehicle and had nothing to try to pull me out.  They asked where they could take me because they didn't want to leave me there.  I just wanted to try to follow those tracks and call out to Tris.  I asked him if we could go to the General Store in Tofte to buy a strap so he could pull me out.  He was willing.  But the General Store did not sell them.  They suggested we go back up the road about 15 minutes to Lutzen or we could try the Holiday station in Tofte.  We went there first since it was closer.  No, they did not sell them.  They suggested we go back up the road where I was stuck to Cooters Auto Body.  Maybe they could help.  This kind couple was driving me all over creation on their vacation time.but didn't seem to mind.

Cooters had a large rope with a hook on each end and let us take it to see if John could pull me out.  He had a four wheel drive pickup but the road was slippery and he couldn't get the traction needed to do the job.  So we went back to Cooters to see if they would be willing to try using their diesel pickup truck that we saw sitting in the driveway.  Reluctantly he conceded and drove up to my stuck car to do the job.  He was easily able to pull me out of my rut and I profusely thanked everyone for so kindly assisting me. 

They all left and I carefully pulled to the edge of the road again to park.  I wasn't leaving before going into the woods to try to follow those tracks.  Grabbing the dog dish with food, I walked off the edge of the road to head to the woods and sunk up to my waist in snow.  Crawling on my hands and knees  with cold, wet snow oozing into my boots with every movement, I finally made it to the trees where the snow wasn't as deep.  I stood up and managed to remove the snow from my boots, then began following Tris' tracks.  As I walked, I loudly called her name to no avail.  Soon I realized she was traveling way faster than me and could already be miles away.  Plus it was starting to get dark.  So I trudged back to the car and drove back to where the snowmobile trail crossed the road.  I walked for about a mile down the trail calling her name.  No sign of her.  Disappointed that I could not find her with darkness now upon me, I headed back to the car.  What little dog food I had with me, I dumped  on the edge of the road by the snowmobile trail hoping she would find it.

When I got home I told John and Joanna all that had happened.  There was also a message on our answer machine that some other snowmobilers had seen her about 4:20 pm on the trail.  So she was definitely hanging around the packed trail but no one could catch her. 

Saturday morning we got up at 6 am with plans to head back to Tofte.  Joanna had a sense that today was the day we would bring her home.  John headed north to Hovland about 35 miles away to feed the sled dogs and pick up our snowmobile to aid us in traveling the snowmobile trail around Tofte.  Joanna and I loaded up snowshoes and cross country skiis and took the Tahoe to get there ahead of John and start looking for her.  We stopped several places to leave a brochure with her picture and give them out to snowmobilers.  Then we headed back up the road to where the snowmobile trail crossed the road.  We were just about to park when I received a call on my cell phone.

"Are you the ones who lost the black dog?"  a lady on the other end asked.  I excitedly said, "Yes, is she with you?"  "Where are you?" 

She said she was feeding her and that she was just a quarter mile back toward Tofte on the same road we were on.  It was a recycling facility.  We quickly turned around and went to the site.  The manager of the facility was feeding her through a fence so she wouldn't run from him.  Joanna went around the end of the fence toward her and called her name.  Tris came right over to her.  I've never seen such an emaciated, skin and bones dog that was still alive.  We were overcome with gratitude.  The woman who called us had come to recycle some things and when the manager showed her the dog, she recognized it as the dog online that was lost and went back home to get our number to call us.  She had even brought back some dog treats to feed her till we got there. 

We were thanking and praising God as we pet her and gave her some more food and water.  After loading her up in the crate and heading back home, we quickly called John to tell him the good news.  He too was overcome with emotion that we had her with us and she was safe. 

When we got home, Joanna brought her inside and wiped her down with some dry shampoo to clean her up a bit and check her over.  Then we put her in our heated garage for a few days to feed her smaller more frequent meals and give her a chance to put her weight back on.  She is looking normal now and even running well with the team. 

The new owners were extremely happy to hear the good news and will be receiving her into their kennel when Joanna sees them at the next race. 

I love happy endings.  :)