The weather here has been miserable for the last 4 days straight with constant rain and wind. I have not been working my concrete business due to the weather, and was going pretty stir-crazy trying to keep my mind off of brandy being gone, and trying to salage some degree of holiday spirit for the sake of my young kids and my wife. But admittedly, it's not been very easy to fake a "good mood" with all that's been going on.
A buddy of mine had asked me to try to do some
repairs to one of his dirtbikes, that his friend had crashed and bent the tail end pretty good. (when all he was really trying to do, was to just get my mind off of all the bummer stuff.
I was in the garage working on the bike, had it halfway tore apart, and was figuring the extent of the damage to the subframe, and forming a plan on how to approach the repairs. it was almost a toss-up between straightening the subframe, or just tear it all the ay down and startover with a new frame.
I was on the phone with him discussing the various options, my phone battery was already beeping for low battery, and I was about to drop the call.
during this time while talking to him, my wife had sent me a urgent voicemail. It was about 4:15 pm, and the rain was pouring down hard.
I had to go plug in the charger just to get the voicemail, and all the while I was just figureing it was probably going to be some bad news reguarding my very ill grandmother who lives 25 miles away. Not that this is something I am hoping for, but the reality is she is 91 years old, and is fully incapcitated to function independantly, requiring full time assistance and care.
Once the phone charged enough to retreive my wifes voicemail, The only thing she had said was “EMERGENCY !, Get off the phone and call me, it is URGENT !”
Great,…. This is all I really need to hear right now!
I immediately returned her call, and her voice was near frantic, and could hardly speak. She was practically yelling at me, and said ”I just received a call from a lady in Baker CA.”
(Baker is about 15-20 miles beyond where we were camping when brandy was lost weeks before)
My wife continued on to say,
“Her name is Renee, her phone is xxx-xxxx, and you need to call her immediately”, “She says she has Brandy”.
I tried to get some more info. From her, an address, her last name, where she was in Baker, ANYTHING! But my wife was basically frantic in tears, at her work, and could only say that was all the info. She knew, and for me to call Renee immediately, which I did.
Renee told me that she worked at the post office in Baker, and had recently lost HER dog, that closely resembled my Brandy dogs description. One of the mail carriers, postman, had spotted the dog from a distance while he was delivering his mail route, and had known about Renee’s missing dog.
He called into Renee to report the sighting, and she told him to stay there and keep her in sight. Renee then phoned her son, and told him to go meet up with the postman to help catch the dog. Once her son arrived at the location, they tried to catch the dog, but she was scared, dirty, skinny, running, and trying to escape the area. It apparently took them some time to corral and restrain the dog, at which point they realized it was not Renee’s dog.
But they DID realize that this was still a lost dog, had a collar with tags, and someone was probably looking for her. They brought the dog to Renee at the postoffice, dried her of, calmed her down, gave her some water and food, and was able to get the info. on the I.D. tags.
It was at this point that Renee thought she may recognize this dog from a photo she had seen at the Baker Animal shelter, that my Wife had sent to them the previous week, when we were looking for Brandy. She called the shelter to verify what she had suspected, and sure enough, she was able to identify this animal as our dog Brandy. That is when she immediately called my wife to tell her the news, and my wife immediately called me.
I just about came completely unglued with disbelife and emotion, and honestly started to lose it.
Baker is about 165 miles away, over two mountain passes, in near horrific driving conditions of rain, wind, sleet, snow, traffic, flooding, sig-alerts all along the way, with reports of the highway Patrol having to providenescorts up the worst part of re two large grades.
I’m home alone, my wife is 25 miles away at work, the kids are in daycare, the truck is out of fuel, there is a virtual river flowing down my driveway into the street, and the sun is going down in about 20 more minutes.
None of that matters to me, and I start throwing dogfood, blankets, water, gps, phone charger, wallet, raincoat, tire chains,hat, and road drinks into the truck.
Just as I was getting into the truck to head out into this god-awful weather to drie 165 miles of flooded icy roads,.. my good buddy Phil calls, realizes I’m a freakin emotional trainwreck, and says he will go with me, on this moments notice, and to stop by his place to pick him up. He dosen’t want me to go alone with the road onditions being what they are.
(once again, I say, it’s times like this when you find out who a real friend is).
Whtin minutes I’m at Phils house, and we hit the road. Traffic was bad, road conditions were dangerous,and 4 eyes on the road , were better than two.
About 3 hours later we arrive in Baker, stop at the vallero fuel station Renee told us to, calle her phone.
I Told her we were in a white Suburban, and would wait for her there.
We park under the canopy at the station, get out to stretch our legs, an get Brandy’s blanket spread out in the rear seat.
As I had my head stuck in the rear door of the Sub,… phil looks up to realize, that out of the total of 8 vehicles at the station,…there is litterly 6 other white suburbans getting fuel at the same time ! go figure the odds on THAT crap !
Moments later, a pickup truck pulls up looking all around at all the white Suburbans, and obviously a bit confused! He quickly figured out which one we were, and pulled up next to us.
Renee got out of the truck with Brandy in her arms, and she immediately saw that Brandy recognized me and just wanted to come to Daddy’s waiting arms.
I am SO thankful for this family of people who took the time in their own time of need and sorrow, to go above and beyond the call of duty, to restore my families Christmas joy, inspite of not even finding her own beloved pet.
The lady is incredible in heart, mind, soul, and selflessness, and I can only hope that her good nature and generous personality will be returned to her by some kind person, who can also save her christmas too.
I Had tried to insist that she/they accept a offering of a reward for finding and returning Brandy to us, and doing more to make this the best christmas ever for myself and my family,
but they were not having any part of it., I even tried to sneek a hundred dollar bill into their truck when I thought they were distrated by Phil and Brandy,… but they caught me, and for a moment there, I thought the big guy was going to threaten me if I was to try a second attempt to et the reward into their truck.
These are TRULY genuinely Good People, and I can only hope that they get as lucky as me, and Santa Clause looks as kindly on them as he has for me and my family.
On the roadtrip home, Phil drove, while held Brandy in my lap, and tried to start getting the word out to this, as well as the many forums, and hundreds of people who have helped us to find our special little girl. My email inbox has been going crazy like a out of control wild fire.
Thank you so much Renee and family for your selfless kindness, and hope that you will come out to share a campfire with my family and friends the next time we go riding out a Rasor rd.
Merry Christmas, God bless, and best wishes to you and your families.
Ron Stephen and family.
she wouldn't even sit up and smile for the pic. Haha. The black lab we just got about two months ago, we adopted her from the humane soc, she is three and alread trained, spayed, chipped and very good.
I really need a vacation. 
