First I want to thank all of you who sent good wishes and support. This has been a rough 48 hours.
Early Sat AM my kids showed up to help look. It was 27 degrees and they all have good jobs but they gladly gave up their day off to help. We started looking at 8:30. We split into two teams. I needed to drive the 4 miles into town to get gas in the truck again and Jess and Josh were trying to follow the last tracks I had found. While I was driving Amy looked on the "wrong" side of the road. She asked if That was a deer killed on her side of the road? Of course it wasn't. It was or male Lab Bayley. We had him 4 years since my wife adopted him from the pound in Des Moines. He and our spayed female bonded instantly and became inseprable. He was a wonderful dog but an even greater friend...I don't have it in me to describe my loss.
After taking his body home, we returned to the spot where the dogs tried to cross the road. Amy and Jess drove both sides of the road and My son-in-law Josh and I tried to track Morgan. She left the highway after Bayley got hit and ran through a plowed field. There was no blood and her track appeared normal. We circled the field and found her track on the back side. Josh and I leap-frogged the track and followed it to the rear of the stone quarry. It was mainly brome grass with a few scattered patches of snow-very difficult tracking conditions. We would circle and cast ahead when we would lose the track in the grass. I saw a quarry road that lead down to better tracking conditions. I roamed out ahead figuring it would push us ahead by a huge amount. I was about 50 yards ahead of Josh when I saw Morgan sitting stone still beside a tree in the grass. I screamed at Josh to come and he thought I had found the track again ahead of him. Morgan never moved but sat like a stone. That is totally out of character for her. She never moved her head or flinched. The third time I screamed at him, Josh finally made it to my side. I pointed to the tree 40 yards ahead, and said, Tell me what you see and tell me I'm not dreaming. We ran like a couple of school kids to get to Morgan. She back to within 3/4ths of a mile from our house. She too had been hit and was limping severly on her back leg. She never moved a muscle until we were about 6 feet away then her tail gave her away. We got her home and to the vet. There is nothing broken or of lasting harm. Just some cuts and swelling. He said she was very lucky and that she was definitely hit too.
If my mid-twenties kids hadn't given up their day off to help me we wouldn't have found Bayley. I would still be in the timber tracking them IF I could. (I'm 55 and I can hardly move after two days of bushwacking). I would not have found Morgan alive today and who knows what I would have found tomorrow IF I found her at all. My kids really came through big time. They all eagerly busted brush and slid up and down snow and ice covered hills. They all three shouted till they were hoarse. They never gave up or never once complaigned. Thanks to them I found both dogs, one to lay to rest and one returned to our home safely. How do you say thanks to them. How do you tell them what their work, concern, and attitudes meant to you? How do you make them know how very proud you are of them? They have been truely awesome. We cried together like babies when we found Bayley beside the road. We also cried together when we found Morgan alive. I certainly could not have done this alone. Without them I would have nothing to report to you. I am truely blessed to have them in my life.
...................Every man should be so lucky to have a son-in-law and step-daughters like I have!!!
Thanks for indulging me this time on this forum my friends.....just had to share my day with you.
Michael
Early Sat AM my kids showed up to help look. It was 27 degrees and they all have good jobs but they gladly gave up their day off to help. We started looking at 8:30. We split into two teams. I needed to drive the 4 miles into town to get gas in the truck again and Jess and Josh were trying to follow the last tracks I had found. While I was driving Amy looked on the "wrong" side of the road. She asked if That was a deer killed on her side of the road? Of course it wasn't. It was or male Lab Bayley. We had him 4 years since my wife adopted him from the pound in Des Moines. He and our spayed female bonded instantly and became inseprable. He was a wonderful dog but an even greater friend...I don't have it in me to describe my loss.
After taking his body home, we returned to the spot where the dogs tried to cross the road. Amy and Jess drove both sides of the road and My son-in-law Josh and I tried to track Morgan. She left the highway after Bayley got hit and ran through a plowed field. There was no blood and her track appeared normal. We circled the field and found her track on the back side. Josh and I leap-frogged the track and followed it to the rear of the stone quarry. It was mainly brome grass with a few scattered patches of snow-very difficult tracking conditions. We would circle and cast ahead when we would lose the track in the grass. I saw a quarry road that lead down to better tracking conditions. I roamed out ahead figuring it would push us ahead by a huge amount. I was about 50 yards ahead of Josh when I saw Morgan sitting stone still beside a tree in the grass. I screamed at Josh to come and he thought I had found the track again ahead of him. Morgan never moved but sat like a stone. That is totally out of character for her. She never moved her head or flinched. The third time I screamed at him, Josh finally made it to my side. I pointed to the tree 40 yards ahead, and said, Tell me what you see and tell me I'm not dreaming. We ran like a couple of school kids to get to Morgan. She back to within 3/4ths of a mile from our house. She too had been hit and was limping severly on her back leg. She never moved a muscle until we were about 6 feet away then her tail gave her away. We got her home and to the vet. There is nothing broken or of lasting harm. Just some cuts and swelling. He said she was very lucky and that she was definitely hit too.
If my mid-twenties kids hadn't given up their day off to help me we wouldn't have found Bayley. I would still be in the timber tracking them IF I could. (I'm 55 and I can hardly move after two days of bushwacking). I would not have found Morgan alive today and who knows what I would have found tomorrow IF I found her at all. My kids really came through big time. They all eagerly busted brush and slid up and down snow and ice covered hills. They all three shouted till they were hoarse. They never gave up or never once complaigned. Thanks to them I found both dogs, one to lay to rest and one returned to our home safely. How do you say thanks to them. How do you tell them what their work, concern, and attitudes meant to you? How do you make them know how very proud you are of them? They have been truely awesome. We cried together like babies when we found Bayley beside the road. We also cried together when we found Morgan alive. I certainly could not have done this alone. Without them I would have nothing to report to you. I am truely blessed to have them in my life.
...................Every man should be so lucky to have a son-in-law and step-daughters like I have!!!
Thanks for indulging me this time on this forum my friends.....just had to share my day with you.
Michael
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