Deputy Tyler Christen got the call in the evening of March 23. The Wyoming wind had been battering Carbon County and other areas across the state. And now the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office had received an email that led to an immediate “search and rescue” operation.
The Carbon County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) and its county search and rescue units conduct dozens of searches every year. Many, like this one, take place during winter conditions. They often involve overdue snowmobilers. Sometimes they are related to hunters or to travelers who followed GPS directions when they should have stayed on main highways.
The county has recently established a Carbon County Avalanche Observation Team, which has been training through the winter in order to better respond to emergency situations in the Snowy Range and Sierra Madre mountains.
All search and rescue team members in the county are dedicated men and women who leave their dinner uneaten and respond whenever they are called to service. They take their responsibility to help seriously. And that usually involves looking for people.
But the report on March 23 was for a missing dog. Well, precisely, it was a stuffed animal named Dog.
The email received at approximately 8:21 p.m. by the sheriff's office came from a father from St. Louis, Missouri. He outlined the situation.
The family had stopped at a rest stop east of Creston Junction on Interstate 80 while returning to their home after a vacation. The wind was howling at the time (imagine that!). When the man’s son got of the vehicle, his stuffed animal, named Dog, went flying in the wind.
The report of the incident doesn’t give particulars about how upset the boy was. But as any parent knows – if the favorite stuffed animal goes missing there is crying, wailing, and pleading with parents to “just look some more.”
But no doubt the family had to get back on the road, so likely with a broken-hearted kid in the back seat, they continued east, heading for their home in Missouri.
One can only imagine that the continued angst of the child prompted his father to make a last-ditch effort to find the cherished Dog.
In an email to the Sheriff’s Department, the father wrote, “You must have a million better things to do, and chances are, his stuffed animal, named Dog, will not be found."
That father obviously didn’t know that the CCSO takes every report seriously.
Dispatcher Taylor Miller soon forwarded the email, complete with a map, to the county sheriff’s patrol division, and the search and rescue operation began.
Deputy Tyler Christen, who was patrolling the Little Snake River Valley, was closest to the last reported location of Mr. Dog and he quickly responded to the area.
Determined to make a little boy happy. Deputy Christen began an arduous ground search, and he located the missing stuffed animal!
Sheriff Alex Bakken reported, “The family has been notified, and we are happy to report that ‘Mr. Dog’ is safe and sound and back on his way to St. Louis.”
The amazing aspect of the story is that Dog was found near the rest area where he went missing. With the kind of wind gusts we had during March, it’s surprising Dog didn’t end up in Albany County, or Laramie County, or even Nebraska.
With wind speeds and gusts 80 miles per hour and higher during recent weeks, everyone has had to hold on to his hat when outside – or his stuffed animal!
Congratulations to the CCSO for another successful conclusion to a search and rescue operation.
Candy Moulton can be reached at Candy.L.Moulton@gmail.com
