Tail of Trust

Picture this. A leap of excitement chasing a squirrel, landing in a busy median strip on a highway far from home. Fatigue and hunger quickly settling in, drudging every step, miles away from familiar surroundings, trusting that you’re moving in the right direction.

Fast moving traffic on each side, not having enough energy to cross the highway to safety, just pushing yourself to keep walking.

“Oh my goodness, we have to stop!” The first attempt, we passed him, not a safe place to pull over we feared. Cars whirling past us in a quick gust heading somewhere. I gasped at the thought witnessing an accident of a beautiful large tan Lab being struck.

We try again. We didn’t have a plan only needing to save him.

Circling around again, gently landing on a small area, teetering halfway on the busy highway, giving him enough room so not to scare him into the fast, approaching traffic.

No plan. Yet.

Our knee jerk reaction is to tempt him with water. Not thirsty.

So we sit and wait.

He hesitates, slowly turning around, reluctantly, carefully inching his way towards our vehicle. Tears of joy welling up while witnessing a grateful dog, wagging his tail for our willingness to stop and help.

Success.

At this point your logical mind wonders, ‘what are we going to do next?’

Trust.

“He’s going on a camping trip!” my friend celebrating him going with us.

I immediately thought of a wish being granted, envisioning a dream I had camping with a dog. 

Wish granted!

We quickly jump in the car and we’re on our way to St. Francois State Park in Bonne Terre.

A sense of relief envelopes us watching this grateful, happy dog safe in our car, enjoying the freedom of safety.

We both giggled with a what-just-happened awareness, waiting to see where this journey is taking us.

Trust.

His sense of faith, courage and kind spirit soon inspired us to call him, St. Francois, naming him after our impending camping destination.

We welcomed the unknown excitement of an adventure. Why not? Fear can dampened the fun out of anything, so breathe and see what happens.

Trust.

I noticed there is a deep passion in people’s hearts when helping a rescued animal. Everyone we met wanted to help. Facebook helped to spread the word.

We met very nice people eager to help; Sheri and Jim on the trail, Debbie and Paul at our campsite, all are posting it on Facebook and also we were greeted warmly at a local vet to check for a chip to identify our rescue’s owner.

Denise volunteered to take home St. Francois to temporarily foster him when later that night a message came from Sheri that she found the owner on Facebook.

The owner drove late that night with faith that it was her dog and success!

Owner and canine reunite!

St. Francois’s real name is Max. His journey started in Farmington on Thursday chasing a squirrel. On Saturday morning, we found him going in the right direction heading home to Bonne Terre, 20 miles away!

What this adventure showed me is that when you’re lost, it takes determination and trust to find your way home and all you have to do is to decide which direction that you’re going in and just keep walking!

A tail of trust.