Changing Roads Podcast
Changing Roads Podcast unveils the profound essence of travel, exploring not just the destinations, but the personal transformations within. We unravel the various themes, aspects and narratives of travel that define us, shape us, and lead us to the heart of our own stories.
Changing Roads Podcast
Bring Jade Home: The Miraculous Rescue of a Dog Lost in Yellowstone
This week on Changing Roads, we share the incredible story of a dog named Jade and her devoted owners, David and Laura. This episode takes you on a gripping journey from a heart-wrenching car accident in Yellowstone to the relentless and emotional search for their beloved pet. You'll experience every treacherous mile and sleepless night right alongside them, feeling the collective heroism of a community that understands what it means to truly love a dog.
David and Laura's quest to find Jade is nothing short of awe-inspiring. This story is not just about finding a lost dog but about the power of community, the lengths people will go to for love, and the emotional and spiritual growth that occurs along the way.
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Welcome wanderers, dreamers and fellow seekers of the open road. This is Changing Roads, a sanctuary for explorers of the world and the self. As long as we can remember, humans and dogs have stood side by side, a relationship built on survival, of the kindness, not the fittest. When we and our canine companions find each other, the most sacred of bonds is formed. Then, one day, something unforeseeable happens and they're suddenly gone, lost as alone as you. It's not just about losing a dog, it's about losing a piece of your heart. They aren't just pets, they're family. They're our protectors, our loyal companions. They'd stand side by side with us, tooth and claw against anything. But now they're out there alone in the wilderness. It's not just about fear, it's about the drive, the relentless decision to find them, no matter the cost, no matter how many sleepless nights, how many miles we trek, through the cold, the dark, through forests thick with shadows and eyes watching from the brush. We know the dangers. There are predators out there Bears, wolves, coyotes, creatures that look at our dogs as prey. But our dogs, they're survivors, they're fighters, their instincts are ancient, they have heart and they have hope, and so do we.
Speaker 1:And then in this world there are people, good people, strangers, who understand that bond. They don't need to know your story to help you write an ending. These are people who will drop everything to be by your side to search, to dig, to scour the hills and valleys. They're not doing it for recognition, not for reward. They do it because they know what it means to have something worth fighting for.
Speaker 1:They understand the connection between a human and their dog. They know you're not searching for just any animal. You're searching for the one you love most, for family. And it's more than just a search. It's a mission, a promise. You won't stop until they're found, until they're home again, because your dog would do the same for you. And together with the people who stand by you, with every howl, every bark that echoes through the trees, stand by you with every howl, every bark that echoes through the trees, we fight for that loyalty, for that bond, for that love that can't be broken, no matter how dark the night, how steep the trail, how deep the wilderness we will bring them home.
Speaker 1:Hi, welcome to Changing Roads. I am your host, brad, and normally we would have, as you know, our co-host Ranger on here, but today we have a special guest co-host and her name is Jade the Dog. We also have David and Laura, her owners, to tell the story that you're about to hear, and it's very amazing. It has inspired me, my family and people all over the world. I'm sure it's such a special thing to have them on. It's an honor. I would like to say, too, that this story does revolve around Jade, but there's no main character here, because everyone in this story, in my opinion, is a hero here, because everyone in this story, in my opinion, is a hero. So Jade is sitting by my feet and she's being a very good dog and we're just going to turn this over to David and Laura. Thank you, guys for letting me into your home. It's nice to do this face to face. It's pretty incredible. So thank you for being with me. I appreciate that.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you for being interested in our story oh.
Speaker 1:I love your story.
Speaker 2:And wanting to share it with everybody.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think the world needs to hear this because it's pretty incredible and it's pretty life changing at the end of the day.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely To start. Would you guys mind giving us a?
Speaker 2:little bit of background on yourselves and how you two met.
Speaker 3:Sure Well, you want me to go first. Sure Well, we met on January 31st 2015 through an online dating program called Out.
Speaker 2:Our Time, our.
Speaker 3:Time Perfect, that's what it was. Yeah, and we just had a few dates between that January date and then later into the summer we had several dates, six or eight, maybe Does that sound right or was it more than that?
Speaker 2:You need to mention how we noticed each other on the website. Oh, that's right, that's a big part. That is a big part.
Speaker 3:She had a picture of her holding leila, an aussie, as a puppy yep and I'm a big aussie fan. So I saw that picture with the baby aussie and I had to reach out to her and say beautiful puppy you have there.
Speaker 1:I'd like to meet you right perfect yeah, everyone's sitting at this table right now is an aussie cattle dog fan right, yeah, yes, yes yep, and that being said, leila just to say real quick is also a part of this story, so I didn't want to leave Layla out just yet, oh, thank you. Throw Layla in there, right up front.
Speaker 2:She is part of the story. She is a good part of it.
Speaker 3:So then we had what? Six or eight dates, I guess maybe ten, I didn't really keep track but we decided in July of that year to go on a trip together. She had to go to billings montana to do a dog agility trial. She's a judge for akc for akc. That's it. So jade and I decided to go along with her and layla, and we put them in crates in the back of the car and off we went to billings montana to start with to do her dog show.
Speaker 1:I thought you were going to tell this. Yeah, you do. Agility judging for dogs.
Speaker 2:Right and I thought, okay, well, david loves history, why don't you come with me and I'll judge during the day? And he went off and did a lot of the history sites around Billings, cool. And then I had a fun gig in Jackson Hole, wyoming. So I said let's go up there and visit Yellowstone during the week and at the very end I'll judge in Jackson and we'll come back home. So I said now, if we bring the dogs, they have to be in crates. He had an airline crate for Jade and Layla was in a wire crate and off we go. The dogs got to know each other.
Speaker 3:They got along pretty well.
Speaker 2:Right. They did so. We did the judging gig and we were staying in Cody, Wyoming and drove around Yellowstone. David did most of the driving while I sightseeing, and about halfway through the trip in Yellowstone we switched drivers because he had driven all day. I jumped behind the wheel and start to take off. And this is in the middle of Yellowstone, between Norris and Canyon Village, and so Middle of the afternoon.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was 3.30 or 4 in the afternoon 3 o'clock in the afternoon and I'm following a little red car and the red car swerves out of the way and I look up and this Dodge Ram pickup's coming out. It's 45 miles an hour. So unfortunately I swerved the steering wheel and David took the brunt of it and it was a pretty nasty wreck.
Speaker 1:It was almost head-on, wasn't it? Yes, and it was a pretty nasty wreck. It was almost head-on, wasn't it?
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, because we were probably doing 45 miles an hour or two the opposite direction. If you see pictures of the car, it's just like you were talking about earlier.
Speaker 1:I've seen the pictures it's crunched.
Speaker 2:It is.
Speaker 3:The engine was pretty well in the front seat of the car after the wreck.
Speaker 2:I was afraid David had died. It was horrible and we were very fortunate. We had a doctor show up within a minute of the wreck and they were attending to David and they were getting a helicopter ready and ambulances and everything. They shut down the road and they helicoptered him to Bozeman and then I was ambulanced and I finally get there at about 9 o'clock at night to see David's alive.
Speaker 3:Well, they also sent you to the wrong hospital to start with. They were sending her to Idaho Falls, Idaho.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I remember that, and they sent me to Bozeman.
Speaker 3:And somewhere along the line the helicopter and the ambulance driver spoke with each other and they turned around and headed to Bozeman.
Speaker 2:So I had a much longer ride to see and I was in a helicopter.
Speaker 3:So I got there fast, yeah, but I couldn't see a thing. They had me strapped down here I am flying over Yellowstone National Park on a beautiful summer afternoon and they had me gurneyed into the helicopter where all I could see was the roof of the helicopter.
Speaker 1:I've been there so that's kind of what it's like.
Speaker 3:I know what it's like it kind of sucks when you're going over a national park and you can't see anything.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So anyway, I was kind of disappointed by that, but I was kind of in and out of it at that time too, yeah.
Speaker 2:Right. So I get to the hospital and David's first words to me how are the dogs? I'm like, I'm fine, thank you. So he was very concerned about the dogs. I said they're fine. The rangers said they'd take care of them, don't worry. And about an hour later I get a call from a ranger saying we're so sorry. One of your dogs got away and David's listening in. And I asked him which dog? And they said black and white dog. When we went to get her out of the crate it shattered and she just bolted yeah, the crate was actually what about 13 or 14 pieces yeah wow because it shattered when the cooler hit slammed up against the back of the seat or the cooler hit it or something.
Speaker 3:Wow, totally shattered.
Speaker 2:The other one survived, but jade's it looked like a bolt, looked like a bowling ball, had gone off in it, though, but so he's like it's my dog, isn't it? And I said yes, and his first words is I gotta get out of here, I gotta get my dog yeah, and we're talking about jade jade, yes, yeah and both of them were uninjured in the the rack yeah, not even jade.
Speaker 3:Even though her crate got shattered, she didn't get hurt. Yeah, but boy I was, I had a concussion and a broken arm, broken wrist, three broken ribs um shattered kneecap and then a lot of nips and scrapes and bumps and bruises. So oh yeah, that was a mess. So we spent the night in bozeman in the hospital. That night she sat in the chair watching me and I just sat there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was just bruised and beat up. So I tried to find the biggest rental car I could at the airport and he talked his way out of the hospital. So the next morning we load him up in the car and the rangers had sat there at the crash site and had sighted her a couple times. So we're all optimistic. Yeah, we're going to go get Jade, we're going to call and get her and she's going to come running out of the woods to us.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we didn't get there till about noon the next day. By the time she got a rental car and we got permission to get leave the hospital.
Speaker 1:Against doctor's order.
Speaker 3:Yes, they wanted me to stay another day and I the hospital, against doctor's order. Yes, they wanted me to stay another day and I said, no, I gotta go find my dog, especially since the ranger called.
Speaker 2:So we we just saw her a few minutes ago, so we left yeah, headed up there, but then we didn't get to that crash site till about noon no, we got to the entrance and it was backed up forever and the rangers got us a pass to go take a shortcut around and cut in front of everybody, yeah, and then, of course, we're trying to get there as fast as we can. There's these, you know, everybody looking at the wildlife and we're just like it's a bison.
Speaker 3:Let us through.
Speaker 2:But anyway, we get there and the rangers were so good and they shut down the road for us.
Speaker 3:Later that evening.
Speaker 2:Yeah, david could barely walk, walk, so I would put layla on a leash and walk up and down the road and we were just yelling for jade the whole time yeah, that was about sunset that night after.
Speaker 3:When we got there, jade wasn't there. The ranger was, but jade wasn't yeah we looked around and called and she, like I said, she used to always come to my whistle on it, but my arm was in a cast and I usually have to use the fingers to whistle. Yeah, so I used my left hand and the whistle just didn't sound the same no, it was different.
Speaker 1:Jade is in the wilderness of yellowstone. Yeah, she's gone by now.
Speaker 3:She's nowhere to be seen or heard, but they did block the both directions of that road for about 15, 20 minutes. For us that night to yell and scream and whistle for her to come out of the woods no dog we were pretty devastated.
Speaker 2:We didn't have any. They had taken our clothes from the wreck. So I had to go. We had to go get food at Canyon Village and I had to buy all Yellowstone attire. And the woman when I was buying the clothes and everything she asked me Are you having a good time in Yellowstone attire? And the woman when I was buying the clothes and everything, she asked me are you having a good time in Yellowstone? And I said, well, we were in a wreck yesterday and she knew all about it.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And so they gave us free dinner and everything.
Speaker 3:Free room for the night? Yeah, found a room. Hope you find your dog. Okay, thank you.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I'm sure she'll come out no problem. And dog, okay.
Speaker 2:Thank you, yeah, I'm sure she'll come out no problem. And so what? We were there another two days, one night. We went out the next day and called and yelled and realized we had to go home yeah, to take care of his injuries and we were pretty devastated never did make it to jackson.
Speaker 3:No, fair enough, she had to cancel it.
Speaker 2:But his kids had bought him this dog for father's day. So we get home and his kids are pretty devastated over the whole thing.
Speaker 1:It was your daughter, David, that picked her out, wasn't it? It was.
Speaker 3:We went to look at puppies the day that we got her and he had two litters. He had Jade left from the previous litter. She was the only puppy left out of seven. And then we looked at another litter that were about three weeks younger and my daughter made a big deal. I was like I like this one, or I like this one out of the younger group of puppies, and we're like no, we gotta have that one, she's alone.
Speaker 3:She has no family. We want that one. Oh yeah, I was like okay, your daughter, she got blue eyes too, and so that was a big attraction to me.
Speaker 1:Your your daughter plays a part in this story.
Speaker 3:Later on, she does, yeah, she does.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:So we Go ahead.
Speaker 2:Well you tell about. We get home and the kids are devastated I shouldn't say kids, but adults. I don't remember where we were in the story, so you can explain, tell them about how Angie and Scott got together and went up and looked for her.
Speaker 3:They did about after I got home two, three days later. Of course, this was still early July, so they decided to go load up some camping equipment and they both drove separate cars up to Yellowstone to start looking for her, because Angie had to be back for school. I think she was still in school at the time. It was Scott's birthday.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was over, and Scott's birthday happened while they were up there back for school. I think she was still in school.
Speaker 3:At the time it was Scott's birthday. Yeah, it was over and Scott's birthday happened while they were up there looking for Jade. But they were up there for three or four days each. But Angie had to come home sooner and putting posters up, signs up while Scott was camping and one of the days that some of the other fellow campers at the campsites around him had heard his story about, he was up there looking for a lost dog and one family gave him an envelope with a bunch of cash in it I can't remember how much it was, I think it was around $100. And wrote this really nice letter to him Hope you find your dog and we're so sorry for your loss. And that was the first time that a stranger had reached out and said we're so sorry. What happened, you know, and that was big, that was a big deal.
Speaker 3:And it happened on his birthday too so that was a big deal, but he didn't find Raider or didn't Ranger he didn't find. Jade, and neither did Layla or Angie, so they came home after about five days in Yellowstone empty-handed Angie.
Speaker 1:So they came home after about five days in Yellowstone Empty handed.
Speaker 2:I have to point out, too, that you guys are living in Denver at this point. Correct Denver to Yellowstone is not a short drive.
Speaker 1:You're going back and forth the entire time from Denver to Yellowstone and back.
Speaker 3:And that's a journey for sure. Yeah, by now they'd already been up there, we'd come back. But they got back, no luck. They were all really bummed out, disappointed and bummed out, and that's when time started just going by where we didn't hear from anybody or anything.
Speaker 2:It was about three weeks after the wreck that we got a call. They're doing road construction up there everywhere, and near Norris they had an area that they would have all the trucks and everything. And we get a call that jade, ate, roadkill yeah, it was, I heard it was a chipmunk, right yeah squirrel, I think, is what it was yeah.
Speaker 2:So they knew with all the posters up everywhere, they were like that's that lost dog. And so we got calls that jade was alive and eating roadkill and so it was like she's still alive, let's go get her. So, david's, you know left arm and a cast left leg and everything we load up the car.
Speaker 3:I had one surgery by now right, this is about three weeks, july 23rd, that we had the wreck, and this is about three weeks July 23rd that we had the wreck and this is about three weeks after that.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:That we headed to Yellowstone again.
Speaker 2:So we load the car up with crates, layla champagne we thought we're going to go get Jane. We're all excited on the drive up there and everything we get up there. We're staying at the Old Faithful Inn. Old Faithful Inn yep, right, they got us a room there. Old Faithful, right, they got us a room there.
Speaker 3:They're dog friendly there, which is amazing, because they were completely full yeah, or that week but they still got us in.
Speaker 2:So we went to the construction area. We brought all this laundry, david's robe and clothing, old clothing and that to put up in the area. Toys, toys, yes, and David couldn't walk really well, so I'd sit him on the top of a hill and walk Layla up and down with a squeaky toy, and getting Layla to bark and everything, yeah. And so of course they don't want you to leave food out. But one of the construction guys made a comment. He goes I would leave Everything out there Buddha.
Speaker 2:Half of a cow out. There is what it took.
Speaker 1:I have my tattoo here that says don't feed the bears.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's hysterical. That's hysterical.
Speaker 3:Well, we didn't want the bears feeding off jades. What we did?
Speaker 1:No, I don't blame you. I would have left anything in the world out to find your dog.
Speaker 3:So we were out there that trip, we were there about five days five days and I guess it was like the third or fourth night, the really big, heavy thunderstorm rolled in and it was raining and hailing and lightning and thunder and hail got I don't know pea-sized or so, but boy that night and I just kept feeling so sorry for jade out there in the woods yeah, because she was out there all wet and alone and well at this point.
Speaker 1:I think, this point, I think jade's a professional survivor, she's figuring this out.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, it was feral, because by then the people who saw her, the construction workers, had said that well, we knew that was jade the lost dog and we called for her, but she wouldn't come to us yeah you know she's very loyal yeah, unfortunately to to me and Laura, and so she didn't get picked up. She didn't get found yet because of being so loyal to us and no one else. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So we've had to make the decision we had to go home without her again.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:That was our lowest point.
Speaker 3:We were devastated. That was a terrible drive home.
Speaker 2:So we had a rental car. Of course, we get a rock right in the middle of the window on the way home, and then David decides I'm not driving fast enough and he jumps behind the wheel and we get a speeding ticket outside of Yellowstone. So I get to drive the rest of the way home.
Speaker 3:Unfortunately the cop caught me doing what was it? 105?.
Speaker 2:I think he put you down for 95.
Speaker 3:And then he saw me and I was in a cast. You can edit that part.
Speaker 2:So we get home again devastated, and I pick up all Jade's toys and bowl them, put them in the garage and we're just totally down. And we get a call from Yellowstone that there's a woman that wants to reach out to us. Is it okay to give her our number, contact information? She had heard that we were out there looking for Jade again and she works for the Yellowstone Reservations and she goes. I've been out there looking for her. There's no sign of demise. Send me your dirty laundry Recorded David's voice and it gave us hope and so we sent everything to her and she had employees.
Speaker 3:You know, out there, kevin torpey is broadcasting david's voice in the car walking around in the woods doing that yeah, and what she was so this was about three weeks after that we went out there the second time, and so she got lost. On July 23rd was the day she disappeared and you know by now it's mid-August and then, after we went back to Denver from that trip, we didn't hear a single word from and nobody saw her for 16 days after that.
Speaker 1:Wow, it was just nothing.
Speaker 2:So once again that was the second time I felt like she's gone, we'll never see her again.
Speaker 3:Wow, then you know what had happened, but for 16 more days we didn't hear a single word about what had happened to her.
Speaker 3:yeah, and then one of the park ranger that had been really working with us the most dave I can't remember his last name it was around the first of september that he called us and said hey, just want to let you know we had some more sightings of your dog out by the carcass dump, yeah, where they dump all the dead buffalo and bison and everything else there in Yellowstone and there's a lot of grizzlies out there. So we're hoping she's okay. But we saw her and so that gave us new hope again because we thought well, she was gone you know, and now it's been about a month since she disappeared.
Speaker 3:It's been longer than that, it's been like five weeks now, and so we loaded up the car again. Angie went with us this time.
Speaker 2:So they didn't want to call us until they had more sightings. Yeah, so we had about three or whatever. And David's like I'm not going back up there unless somebody has my dog, I'm not going to go through that again. And Angie's the one and I are going David, she's not going to come to anybody else. We and Angie's the one and I are going David, she's not going to come to anybody else. We have to go, we've got to go up there. So, like you said, it's a long drive. Angie comes to the house 4 am in the morning. We're going up there trying to be optimistic and everything.
Speaker 3:And this was Labor Day weekend coming up too. This was about the Tuesday or Wednesday before Labor Day that we drove up there that next time.
Speaker 2:So we get up there. It's about 3 o'clock. We get up there and we go to the crash site and we start backtracking.
Speaker 3:We went to the carcass dump site first.
Speaker 2:So we start backtracking and we see a service road and there's no gate on it. And so we thought, okay, we're going to go down there. And yes, that's where we found the carcass site. There's signs everywhere, bears, you know everything. And so we're down there and our phones hardly ever work in Yellowstone. I have Verizon, he has AT&T, and we're down there and my phone rings and it's for the Rangers and they go Jade's in the meadow at canyon village. So I turn around, I'm driving like mario andretti. They're practically hitting the ceiling.
Speaker 2:I'm hitting every bump yep and we get down to the canyon village area and all these rangers are lined up along the meadow and I don't even get the car stopped and Angie and David are jumping out and the tourists are going. What is it? Is it a bear?
Speaker 3:And then we're like it's a dog and they're running and they're all like oh, we don't care about a dog, we're here to see bear.
Speaker 2:But they're yelling Jade. Well, the commotion sent her back in the woods again.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so the rangers are like here, you guys need bear spray.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And don't yell at her. She thinks she did something bad.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So we're excited we saw her.
Speaker 3:That was the big thing, but she was gone into the woods again by the time we got there, so the next day we're driving everywhere.
Speaker 2:she's been sighted.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And we did that for a day and a half at least, and Cat Brecken goes sit your butts in that meadow.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Let her come to you.
Speaker 1:Yep, and I actually want you to talk about Cat, because there's something going on in the background right there's a search and rescue going on by this point there was about 200 people looking for her Yep and we had no idea.
Speaker 3:We didn't know that was going on.
Speaker 2:That many people yeah.
Speaker 3:When we were sitting out there in that meadow, we had all these people. A lot of them were people who lived in Yellowstone or worked for the park or did something. Hi, we're out looking for your dog. Well, who are you? I mean, we met that Steve guy and several other people Right From all these people that were out searching for Jade and we had no idea. We had no idea there were so many people. But they said oh, there's about 200 people out looking for her. It's amazing.
Speaker 1:It is, and we were amazed.
Speaker 3:My mouth hit the floor when I heard that.
Speaker 2:Well, we did a book signing. Later on we had person after person, you know, coming up to us. I was out there, you know, looking for her on my vacation or on my free time. Everybody was just pulling for her, right? So anyway. So Kat said sit your butts in that meadow. So we'd go out there, I hate to say it with some cheese and wine we're going to make a little picnic of it and bacon and everything else. We did that about two or three days in a row, didn't we Right?
Speaker 3:And it wasn't until about the third or fourth day that I said I'm going to get up and I'm going to walk out. You had gone to get coffee.
Speaker 3:Right, I remember that and I of that and I got up and walked out into the middle of the meadow actually all the way the other end of the meadow and I just decided I'd whistle for jade and I whistled and I look at a log about 50 feet away from me and jade pops her head up behind this log and looks at me and her and I are both there. She is and I yelled jade and she turned around and ran up the hill doing a zigzag motion, going up the hill and she disappeared into the woods again and I was devastated.
Speaker 3:You were, I was like she's not going to ever come to us.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:You know, and that just broke my heart, that day it did, you were pretty devastated. I was I went back and I was just like we're never going to get her back. No, I was convinced that she was gone.
Speaker 2:Well, I forgot to mention that when we were up there, they locked us out of that carcass dump area. They made a ranger go with us with a gun and he would unlock it. And we went up there and, like I said, we had all this food in the car and everything. We get up there and David gets out there's a grizzly up there he gets out to take a picture and it starts charging at the car and I'm like get in the car, but we went back and forth that carcass dump about five times.
Speaker 3:About half the time the gate was open. And then we'd go back the next day and the gate would be closed. Oh, you've got to have a ranger go in there with you. So sometimes we went one way, and sometimes we went by ourselves we're hoping she wasn't in there.
Speaker 2:But anyway, back to when david's sorry, he was absolutely devastated and cat's still encouraging. You know, she's like stay out there. So I would go the one end with layla and dave and angie would go sit in another area and I'm with everybody who's always what. What's Jade eating? And it's like bulls. I mean I'd be sitting there and Layla and a bull would come out with like three feet of Layla. You know it's a trail snack, you know, but we didn't see her at all the next day.
Speaker 3:Nothing at all Next day or two. Yeah, it was two days between that day I saw her before you.
Speaker 2:Right. So it's coming up Friday before Labor Day weekend and we're kind of down. We're like we would leave my car at the gas station with all the dirty laundry hanging out of it and people were looking at my car going what it looked like white trash.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we were like yeah, it looked rather funny. And I wake up and beautiful morning, frosty, and I say Layla, I said let's go find Jade, and Angie and David were kind of arguing there Angie's going, I'm not leaving without Jade and David's going, I run a business, I've got to leave. So they were kind of like at each other.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I take Layla up through Canyon Village, see if there's any food on the ground, walk over to the gas station and I run into Steve, this volunteer, who'd been out all night long looking to see if Jade was feeding off of trash or anything else. And so he's in his car. I walk over to the meadow. Beautiful morning A couple of people were out of their cars taking picture of it with binoculars.
Speaker 2:Out there, and out of the corner of my eye I see a black and white thing run away from me and I asked the people I go, is that a dog or a deer? And they look and they go that's a dog. So I call Steve and I go Steve, she's in the meadow, she's in the meadow, she's in the meadow. And so he went around to the opposite side of me to see if she had gone that way and I'm like Layla bark. Come on, layla bark, and Layla's like barking for cheese, like give me some cheese, mom. And it seemed like an eternity. But Jade circled around, she was probably 150 feet from me, pops her head up out of the grass and Kat had mentioned this she goes. Something's going to trigger her.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:And you just could see a change in Jade. She just went whoa, that's Layla getting cheese. And she came charging at me and by this time Steve had come back over to me and I'm bawling and steve takes layla on the leash to his car. He takes a shoelaces out of his shoes as a leash, throws me a can of spam and throws me the leash back and I am bawling.
Speaker 1:Oh, I bet.
Speaker 2:Oh, and I had to walk back to the room and everybody who's up is asking me, is that the lost dog?
Speaker 1:And I'm like, yeah, it's amazing and from what I understand as well, from what I heard, David, you had made the decision you were about done and you were like, if this is, I was.
Speaker 3:After she ran away from me that day, I decided you know we're not going to get her back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so I was ready to go home.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was Labor Day weekend and I knew I had to be back at work first thing, tuesday morning. Yeah, no doubt about that, and so it was kind of a shocker to us that she found her. This was 44 days after she went missing. By the way, by the time she came out of the woods and went there and she had absolutely nothing wrong with her. She had a little scratch right here on the side of her mouth that looked like she probably caught a branch or something while she was running one time, but other than that she was perfectly fine.
Speaker 3:Nothing wrong with her at all. She lost about a third of her body weight. She was only 29 pounds when we found her and she was about 40, 42 or so when we lost her. Wow so she wouldn't have survived much longer after labor day yellstone pretty much closes down for the winter it gets cold? Yeah, for sure and so we were facing a limp time limit too. You know, she made it just in the nick of time, right, she came out of the woods.
Speaker 1:So I love this part of the story because you're in your hotel room, right and Jade or Angie and I are still laying in bed going.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I get to the door and you can't see from the beds to the door and I open the door and I go.
Speaker 3:Who wants to see?
Speaker 2:Jade and it took him a little while. It's like, oh, laura's chipper, as usual.
Speaker 1:Shut up.
Speaker 2:And it took him a little while to register and I let her go and Angie's closer to the door and Jade jumps up on Angie's bed and just all over her and then she kind of looked at David like you're a ghost or kind of like she still didn't really know who I was.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because I still had cast and everything on and then she jumped over in the other bed and she was on you know, just look him up and just couldn't, wiggling her butt and just like dad, yep, and the whole way home it was just. We just kept staring at her.
Speaker 3:Yeah, then we got home and nbc got a hold of us and fox news got a hold of us, all wanting to do interviews with us because they thought it was a pretty amazing story yep and it was very amazing story.
Speaker 3:So yeah, that's when we started telling her. That was the first time we told the story was that next morning after we got home and Laura and I went on to get married? Yeah, tight than not, a little love story there, it really brought us together, all those trips back and forth and all the help we had and all the kids and everything and it just brought us together and we ended up falling in love and getting married.
Speaker 1:Yep and you guys had only been dating for a couple months and you guys are going back and forth, but you're also taking care of David that quickly and getting him around.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:That's incredible, that's love.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I fell for her when I realized she actually cares. Oh, yeah, a lot of people don't, but she actually cares about what happened to me and everything and she kept coming over and bringing me dinner and taking care of me in the evenings.
Speaker 2:I think the best medicine was finding Jade. That was the best medicine.
Speaker 1:The pain goes away. That's technically when the knot got tight.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly, I went on to have a couple more surgeries after that to get my knee back together.
Speaker 1:My kneecap was shattered.
Speaker 3:It took two surgeries to get it fixed and Jade, there was nothing wrong with Jade. She was just perfectly fine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Did she even know? Or is she just like ah, I just went on my own adventure when you guys been.
Speaker 3:We've taken her back up there since then. Right and she didn't really react. She just acted like, as long as I'm not going anywhere. She sticks to me like glue ever since that happened.
Speaker 2:Well, and remember we were driving home. We went a different way and we went by the crash site and there was a black wolf.
Speaker 1:Oh, really, going right down the power line. Yeah, that crash site.
Speaker 3:And there was a black wolf going right down the power line.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was kind of cool. It was like he's saying goodbye to the jade. You don't see wolves very often.
Speaker 3:No, it was early in the morning right when we were leaving that we saw that black wolf right where, right where the crash site was.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:That's a sign.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what we, well, everybody was amazed.
Speaker 3:They go how did she not get eaten by the wolves? And I go I don't know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think she probably barked at him and they didn't like him, or something Ranger Dave had commented, because we were worried about that too, and the very first meeting of him he had said that the coyotes had been decimated by the wolves and we were like, oh no.
Speaker 1:And he goes no that's a good thing.
Speaker 2:Coyotes will pack up on her and kill her, but he thought the wolves might leave her alone. Yeah, so that was a good thing.
Speaker 1:Yep, yeah, you had mentioned earlier, david, that when she ran up that hill one time she was zigzagging back and forth. Yes, and from what I understand, that's actually an evasion tactic that coyotes and wolves use to get away from the big predators like bears, because bears can't do those maneuvers and Jade had figured it out.
Speaker 3:She had. I don't think that's normal for a dog to zigzag up the hill like that. No, it's not. But she learned that really quick and I'm sure it's because she got chased by something wolves or bears. We often said I wish she had a GoPro on her head when she was in the day sheet that happened. No kidding, didn't.
Speaker 2:We had a lot of good things going for us, though David had taught her not to go in the road. She had plenty of water.
Speaker 3:We had a lot of things. Yeah, she didn't have a problem with water in Yellowstone.
Speaker 2:No, and we figured at the first day she was probably wow, this is really cool, I'm out here, it's beautiful, Call of the Wild. And then that first night she's probably going wait a minute, Where's my dad?
Speaker 3:After it was all said and done, laura had a friend of hers, michelle Caffrey, who had written previous books, and she said we want you to tell the story, we'll put it in a book. Yep, and so now there's a book out called Bring Jade Home. I love it. It tells the whole story.
Speaker 1:I picked one up in Yellowstone when I was there. I got my daughter's copies and I actually also wanted to thank Miss McCaffrey, because she's who put you and I in touch and I don't think I would have gotten to be here in front of you guys if it wasn't for her.
Speaker 2:Thank, I would have gotten to be here in front of you guys if it wasn't for her.
Speaker 1:Thank you, Michelle. She wrote a wonderful book. Bring Jade Home, it is. You guys should definitely check it out and pick it up and keep it with you forever. Oh, thank you, Brad.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, you can get it on Amazon, not a problem.
Speaker 1:Cool. And actually I told you guys that there was another podcast that had done a story about you guys. She said that she had found your book at the library.
Speaker 3:That's wonderful, that's cool. Yeah, Far Country Press was the people who published our book and they did a really good job.
Speaker 2:But we do have a screenplay done, yep, and then we're excited about that. We can't tell you how many people comment this should be a movie. Yeah, because it's a happy ending and so many different lives were touched by it a lot of people can relate to it.
Speaker 3:If you lose your dog in that moment, you get your dog back, so we laugh we went back up to yellowstone what the neck about two or three years later to do book signings, and there were so many people walked up to us at those book signings.
Speaker 2:Well.
Speaker 3:I remember I was here looking for your dog and we met I don't know 10 or 15 people, at least. At least that had helped us look for our dog and we were shocked. Awesome it is Well.
Speaker 2:I was going to say how many people have shared tips on finding lost dogs with me.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know I go all over judging and I was up in Washington State and I tell my story in the briefing and that, and this woman was crying and I thought, well, a lot of people cry reading our book, you know, or whatever.
Speaker 1:I cried the first time.
Speaker 2:Oh, I know we will warn you, it should come with Kleenex oh yeah. The dog is alive and happy, and so the dog doesn't die in this book. So I found out later this lady had lost her Sheltie, that she had gone to the pet smorgasbord and the dog had gotten away from her with the leash on and everything like that. Guess what? A week later they found this dog.
Speaker 1:Oh, perfect and it's just like.
Speaker 2:I can relate that feeling. So, anyway, don't give up hope.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's one of the biggest lessons here Never give up, just keep at it.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And totally, yeah, keep going, never stop.
Speaker 3:Some other people have had similar dog losses that we've read stories about. Some of them lost even longer. There was a story on TV just the other night about a dog that was missing for like four months. Wow, and the people who lost the dog had moved to New York that was here in Colorado too had moved to New York for a job that he had gotten, and so they convinced their dog was lost forever. And then their dog got found about four months later. Just came walking out of the woods wanting food from somebody one day and they checked, you know, had collar on. They go. Where did you come?
Speaker 1:from yeah enough they called.
Speaker 3:The people in new york said that's our dog that's awesome.
Speaker 1:They came back and got him perfect. I love happy endings like exactly ranger likes to go on his own adventures here too, where I live, so he sticks around the neighborhood, but it's not a good feeling when you look around and your dog's gone. No, no, we don't want any sequels, nope, but yeah they're just out there having their own adventures and right yeah right yep, it's a happy ending and again thanking, thanking michelle.
Speaker 2:It took us two years to write this book. She put her heart and soul into it yeah and she's a great writer. She did a lot of work on it. And then we have the child's book too, which is beautifully illustrated. We've won the maxwell award on it yeah stephanie did a great job on the child's book too.
Speaker 1:My youngest daughter definitely has a copy. It is beautiful. I've read the children's book too, so it's both of those books are both well done, amazing, absolutely.
Speaker 2:So hopefully it'll be a movie.
Speaker 1:They're just waiting for Sean Penn to pick it up. Exactly, I want Jennifer Gardner to play me and Ricky Gervais to play David pen to pick it up.
Speaker 2:Exactly, I want Jennifer Gardner to play me and Ricky Gervais to play David.
Speaker 3:That's perfect, I know we had it sitting on a production company's desk just before COVID hit Wow. And then, after the COVID thing was cleared, they had actors and writers strike Yep, and so it's still just sitting on some producer's desk right now. It's kind of sad If they're smart they'll pick it up.
Speaker 1:Thank you, we've been hoping for a long time.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, I'd love to see a movie out of this perfect.
Speaker 1:Can I ask you guys a question too, now that we know jade's story, how has that changed your guys's perspective on the world yourself? What did that do for you guys?
Speaker 2:oh, how many good people are out there oh, yeah, yeah, I mean? I mean that's number one. I mean people you don't even know. You know for the love of finding a dog, you know, or just the generosity of people spending their time gives me the chills.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that Steve guy never knew his last name and we never saw him again after that day, but he spent two days right at the very end. You you know of his vacation time he was visiting his son, yeah he was out there and just looking and looking for jade yeah, and ranger dave, he stayed on longer.
Speaker 2:He was going to retire yeah you know, because I think he felt obligated to try and find jade yep.
Speaker 3:So and that summer they wanted a good story out of yellowstone because that would have been a terrible summer for people. And you know the one one guy had drowned in the river that summer and another guy had gotten mangled by a grizzly bear, yep, when he was hiking. So they'd had some bad stories that year and so they were happy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, have a good story, oh yeah, and recognition the cat reckoned.
Speaker 1:We wouldn't, have found Jade without her.
Speaker 2:The cat, reckoned, did so much to help and she's very humble and doesn't you know, but we thank her and thank her.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because without her, I don't think we would have the hope to continue.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's amazing, the kindness of strangers. It really opened your eyes to that. I've had experiences like that as well and it's, yeah, opens your eyes to the world like, and how good people are right a lot of people.
Speaker 3:How selfless, exactly for sure laura and I are happily married now and jade's fat and happy laying under yeah, oh, that was my next question.
Speaker 1:How do you think that changed? Jade.
Speaker 3:Well, she's a lot closer to me than she was before. Like I said, she won't let me out of her sight because she's afraid I'm going to disappear again.
Speaker 2:In her eyes it was us that disappeared, not her.
Speaker 3:Yeah, totally Good point so that's a definite difference and plus she's kind of snarky, but she was that way before Yellowstone. She considers us her owners owners and she really doesn't want anybody else in her life yeah, totally well.
Speaker 1:That's good, because she's laying on my feet right now. Yeah, she keeps kicking me. She's right next to me, right?
Speaker 2:now you're a good girl. It's a good dog being a good girl.
Speaker 1:Yeah well, I'm so glad that I had you guys on. This is really special to me because I've heard your story so many times, so has my family, my daughters, and just out of the blue, you guys came to me, so thank you yeah, I just wanted to mention real quick how cool this is.
Speaker 1:when I reached out to Michelle, who put me in touch with David and Laura, she said, oh, they live in this town in Colorado. And I was like whoa, that's like 10 miles from where I live and it just worked out beautifully. Like I said earlier, the universe has some strange ways of working.
Speaker 3:How you found us is I'm kind of amazed by. But Michelle makes sense, guess, yeah, people are telling your story and you don't even know.
Speaker 1:Exactly like I said, you said you didn't even know about your story being told on this other podcast, which is how I found out about jade.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, we're gonna have to listen to that now yep, I thought it's because you had seen the book someplace no, I picked it up when I got to yellowstone because I knew it would be there for sure right in the gift shop.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm sure they wouldn't mind me saying that's national park after dark. It's a very big podcast ranger and I have our own episode on there too. So, yeah, I I will actually give you the information on how to find that after. Because, they told your story. They told it very well. It's two girls and they told it very well.
Speaker 2:We had no idea. I'm surprised.
Speaker 3:We instead told the story on podcast, at least once.
Speaker 2:Through Far Country, yeah, through Far.
Speaker 3:Country Press Several years ago.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. The National Park Service has a new podcast as well. I was on I think I was episode two on it right when they started it. So I'm going to try and reach out to my people at the National Park Service because it's called my Park Story, and if anybody has a story in a national park, it is well, you guys, yeah story well, and this story is timeless too oh, yeah, yeah, oh yeah I think this will.
Speaker 2:Jade will be living forever in the book.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, and once sean penn picks this up, anybody?
Speaker 2:who knows sean penn please?
Speaker 1:ping him, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Because it does need to be a movie.
Speaker 1:I agree. The more people that hear this story, I think, the better, because it's so inspiring and there's so much to learn from it, whether it's from you guys or Jade, you know, jade didn't give up, just like you didn't give up, and she's a survivor. She is, and so are you. Guys are survivors as well.
Speaker 3:We'd love to see a movie come out before jade gets too old. I'd love to see it happen before she passes. Yep, you know for sure.
Speaker 1:Well, if it doesn't happen soon, I'm picking up my video camera and we'll make it ourselves another trip to yellowstone I love it we can get a mechanical bear. No kidding, no real bears. No, just tell the rangers to let that one out of the cage, if you move around.
Speaker 3:You know, one location to the other one all the time, in Yellowstone it's actually one of my favorite things.
Speaker 1:I've heard a lot of weird comments from tourists and when I was up in Glacier, one of them came up and said when do you guys let the bears out?
Speaker 3:And they were serious. Yeah, totally serious. I'm like what the fuck?
Speaker 2:That's a joke that we had all the time we were looking. Well, look for that one bear.
Speaker 1:Oh, 5 am, I know.
Speaker 3:They let him out at 7 am and put him back in the pen at 5 pm. Right.
Speaker 1:Bring with you a sandwich and I'm sure it's such a pleasure to have you guys on.
Speaker 3:Thank, you, thank you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, we're neighbors now, I know. I know I would love to have my daughters come meet Jade someday, absolutely.
Speaker 3:That would make their life Absolutely. I would say Jade would love it, but she probably won't. She likes girls. She likes girls more than men.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Fair enough. Yeah, well, she likes girls more than men. Yeah, fair enough. Yeah, well, thank you. Yes, yeah, absolutely. There's a facebook page, bring jade home. That was created when you guys were searching for her right correct? And now that jade is found, it's just beautiful little updates on jade and you should definitely go check out their bring jade home facebook so that you can continue to follow jade's story, because it's not over yet that's for sure, not at all.
Speaker 2:No sequel, so yeah, no kidding.
Speaker 3:Hopefully they're getting lost parts over right yeah thank you yeah, totally.
Speaker 1:And where can people find the bring j Home book?
Speaker 3:You can get it a few spots here in the actual printed version of it here. We can get the printed version on Amazon, but you can get signed versions of it here in Colorado, at Abagadas.
Speaker 2:In Conifer and then Colorado Mills down in Denver.
Speaker 3:A place called the Perfect Gift, oh yeah, Right, we have signed copies in there too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right we have signed copies in there too. Yeah, perfect. David and Laura traveled hundreds and hundreds of miles for Jade, so you can travel to Colorado Mills in Denver to pick this book up, no problem man.
Speaker 3:Thank you If you want an autographed version of it.
Speaker 2:Autographed. Totally Autographed.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:Cool Well, totally, oh yeah, yes, cool well, not a very good one there once again.
Speaker 1:Thank you, guys, so so much for being on here and thank you bro.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we love telling our story absolutely good.
Speaker 1:do you guys want to say goodbye to my listeners?
Speaker 2:Absolutely Goodbye, you guys, never get lost. Yeah, hug your dog.
Speaker 3:Let them ride in a safe crate.
Speaker 1:Yeah, totally.
Speaker 3:Right. We found out that not even all the crates are safe.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's true, that's very true.
Speaker 3:Right, but if she wouldn't have been in a crate, she'd probably been hurt a lot worse.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, yep, secure your dogs.
Speaker 2:Yes, secure your dogs, hug your dog every day. That's good advice, because we sat there and couldn't believe that she was gone so quickly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well, Jade would say goodbye. I'm sure she definitely said hello when I walked in, but she's pretty relaxed now Cool. Well, thank you guys again.
Speaker 2:And I can't wait to put this up and for people to hear this story. I'm just super excited, thank you.
Speaker 1:Thanks for finding us we're in six continents, so your story's about to go all over the world. Thank you, yes, ma'am, yes, sir, thank you absolutely.
Speaker 3:Thank you all. Right, guys, I'll talk picture-wise before he I'm going to.
Speaker 1:I get my picture taken in my studio. We're going to get a picture with Jade Heck yeah.
Speaker 2:We're going to get a picture of Brad with Jade too. Perfect, I'll post it on Bring Jade Home Facebook.
Speaker 1:Yay, perfect. Good idea, heck. Yeah, I'm so happy to be a part of your story now.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Yes, part of it now. Perfect, that's amazing. All right, guys. Well, thank you. Thank you for being on and we will definitely talk to you later, because our friendship is not over.
Speaker 2:I don't think it is either to my listeners.
Speaker 1:You can find us at wwwchangingroadscom. Our links to Spotify and Apple Podcasts are on there. We are also on Amazon Music and you can go to our Facebook page. Just type in Changing Roads and we'll pop right up. And I highly suggest going to Jade's Facebook page Bring Jade Home and check out her journey, because it's not over yet, and give her your support and please find and check out their book Bring Jade Home. I can promise you you won't be disappointed Such a wonderful story and I really, really am happy that we got to put this story up and do this episode with you guys. So thank you for joining us and we look forward to next week. Bye.