Friday, December 22, 2006

Dog and owner together again

Collie goes missing for five days near Carey

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Nicole Wark sits with her 2-year-old border collie, Rio. They were reunited after Rio ran off following a car accident near Craters of the Moon National Monument. Photo by Willy Cook

A present of sorts was re-gifted to Ketchum resident Nicole Wark, and it was more perfect than anything she could have asked for.

Wark and her 2-year-old border collie, Rio, were driving back to the Wood River Valley from Jackson, Wyo., on Dec. 13.

A stretch of U.S. Highway 20 near Craters of the Moon National Monument proved slippery, and when Wark hit a patch of black ice her car slammed into a hillside.

Wark climbed out of her car, negotiating around airbags, and was "in the middle of frickin' nowhere," she said.

As she looked over her car to assess the damage, Rio leapt out and disappeared.

Wark, suffering from cuts and bruises, shook off her physical injuries to search for her lost dog.

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She spent that night looking, then returned with friends and other dogs to continue the search over the next four days.

Multiple sets of human eyes and canine noses, plus flyers distributed throughout the area near Carey, failed to locate Rio.

As frigid weather set in, Wark grew increasingly worried.

On Dec. 18, Wark received a phone call from Nancy Schut, an employee at Craters of the Moon, who said she thought a park visitor had spotted the dog.

With no functioning car of her own, Wark borrowed one. En route, she got another call from a Boise resident who saw a flyer posted in Arco. He said he'd seen Rio limping along the highway near Craters of the Moon. A park ranger had also spotted Rio but didn't approach the nervous dog. He told Wark of the dog's whereabouts when she arrived at the park.

Excited and hopeful, but not sure what to expect, Wark lay down in the snow and called out for her dog.

Upon hearing the familiar voice, a 10-pound border collie peeked out from under a bathroom structure and returned to his owner for the first time in five days—and just in time for Christmas.