There were some great Mysterious Ways stories in the news this week, and they all seem to have a similar subject: “man’s best friend.”
Puppy Power
Ten-year-old Kyle Camp of Hackleburg, Alabama, has Down Syndrome, which made it especially terrifying when his parents discovered he had wandered away from their home. He’d left without shoes, without a jacket, and the weather was turning colder by the hour.
Dozens of volunteers and the police spent all night looking for the boy in the woods around his home but came up with nothing, according to local station WAFF.
At 9:30 a.m., Jamie Swinney was out searching with his family dog along a creek when he heard the distinctive, tiny barks of his dog’s recent litter of puppies. What were the pups doing out in the woods?
Jamie followed the sound. He found the little puppies nestled around Kyle, who was unharmed. The puppies had apparently been with him all evening, cuddling with him, keeping him warm and safe until he was found. (Photo credit: WAFF.com)
Wherefore Art Thou, Romeo?
Austin, Texas, businessman Mike Stotts decided he finally had to accept the truth. Park rangers and fellow campers had been telling him he’d never find his dog, Romeo, who’d been missing for three and a half days in the mountains of Santa Fe, New Mexico’s Hyde Memorial State Park. A little house dog (a golden Nova Scotia Duck-Tolling Retriever), with no food or water, in the mid-August heat? With hungry coyotes known to be nearby? What chance did Romeo have?
Mike gathered up some rocks, arranged them in the shape of a cross on the mountainside, and said goodbye to his friend of 15 years.
“I didn’t want to picture him being torn apart by coyotes,” Mike told KXAN News, “I wanted to remember him up on the mountain, looking down at all of the scenery.”
An incredible 66 days later, local resident Eli Madrid was driving to work just before daylight. His headlights briefly flashed upon an animal near the side of the road. A coyote?
No, this animal was smaller. A dog. “It looked like it needed my help,” Eli told KXAN.
The dog’s collar said he’d been chipped, and when Eli brought him to the vet, they discovered the chip was still active.
Mike and Romeo were reunited the next day. What happened to Romeo in those 66 days? We may never know. But we do know what didn’t happen. “Everybody told me that coyotes were a real problem,” Mike said. “There were stories about them going after Lab-sized dogs on leashes. A little 33-pound dog wouldn’t have a chance.”
A Surprise Visitor
John Dolan was staying at the Good Samaritan Medical Center in Islip, New York, recovering from an illness. His dog, Zander, a white Samoyed-Husky mix, was despondent without him, moping about the house. He’d been adopted by John from a shelter, and since then, scarcely a day had passed without John taking him for a long walk around the neighborhood.
Early one morning, John got a phone call from an employee of the hospital. It wasn’t visiting hours yet, but the employee had run into an anxious visitor standing outside the hospital who refused to be denied entry. A dog. John’s name and number were on the collar.
It was Zander. Somehow, he had traveled two miles and crossed a busy highway to get to the hospital. A hospital he’d never been to before.
Wow. Man’s best friend, indeed!
Perhaps the biggest “Mysterious Ways” of my week? The amazing feat of closing our third issue of Mysterious Ways magazine! It should be sent out to subscribers toward the end of November. You can catch a glimpse of the cover on our Mysterious Ways Facebook page.
