October 7, 2025 • 49 mins
Steven Rinella talks with Ronnie Boehme of The Hunting Dog Podcast.
Topics discussed: A wild, near-death story involving Ron's hunting dog, Tagus.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Okay, ladies and gentlemen, we have another emergency episode of
the Meat Eater podcast where something happens with such significance
that you just have to go with it.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Live now flop.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Dear Dad, I got a text from my beloved friend,
Ronald F.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Bain.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
He says, is there a time a day or two
of the week that we could have a conversation. I
have a story. When I tell you the story, you
will not believe it. But it's going to take some time.
I'm intrigued, he replies, I say, I'm intrigued. He replies,
I would put it on a scale if Jesus was
buried and rose again three days later. Well that and
(00:46):
that story's got a lot of press.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Yeah, but that's an old story and I don't know
any witnesses. I don't know any witnesses to that story.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
In this one, well, this one, there's a witness that
this story. There's a witness, and we need to find them.
That's the objective. So if you're if you're listening or watching,
pay special attention to this story. It's a story about
the salvation of a dog, the resurrection of a dog,
and there's a person, there's a person in this country
(01:20):
of tremendous interest, possibly two or three people of tremendous interest,
if we can find them.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Yeah, we're looking for one more puzzle piece.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
But first, Oh go ahead, No, you're good.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
No, yeah, I said, we're looking for one more. I've
got as much of the story as it could be accumulated.
But I just wanted to figure maybe in your audience
somebody saw something or got home and said, you won't
believe what I saw today.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yep, and they're out there. We're going to find them.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Yeah, we're hoping. We're hoping.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Uh, but first uh meet either live the Christmas two
are headed to the South.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Okay, we got here one second.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Fayetteville, Arkansas has sold out, so scratch that. But we
got December seventeenth, Birmingham, Alabama at the Lyric. December eighteen, Nashville,
Tennessee at Marathon Music Works. December nineteenth, Memphis, Tennessee at
Minglewood Hall. The twentieth is FAYETTEVILLEA was too late twenty first, Dallas, Texas,
(02:19):
Texas Theater, December twenty second, Austin, Texas at the Paramount
me The Latvian Lover Clay Nukeombe Brent Reeves, Doctor Randall,
all headed out hitting the road. A lot of laughs, giveaway,
a lot of prizes, music, very entertaining night. So get
(02:39):
your girlfriend what she actually wants. There's some stupid slippers.
Get her tickets to the Christmas Tour. Another thing, it's
been out for a while but I haven't mentioned this yet.
We got a new Meat Eater storm Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Stop
in there. It's open right now. We had the opening,
(03:02):
it was great, tons of people came out. It's still there.
It'll be there in perpetuity, the Meat Eater store in Milwaukee.
So if you're in that region, go check that out.
Another thing is we got another We got another six
pack of Meat Eater episodes season thirteen coming out in
a few weeks on October twentieth, with no further ado.
(03:26):
My special friend Ronnie Bain is gonna tell us a
dog story.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
And Ronnie, if you want to set it up with
a little like, if you want to set it up
with a little bit of dog history about your dogs,
you were the first guy knew who got serious about dogs.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
I mean like really serious that would.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Have gangs of them and be messing with them and
experimenting with them and not just like a dog that
you had and then that dog dies and you get
another one. It's kind of how dog ownership generally went
in our area.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
Yeah, most people could only do one dog, and uh
I I kind of jumped with both feet into it
and started. You know, I got involved with a Versatle
Dog Club. I apprenticed and became a judge and a
senior judge for for Versalle hunting dogs. But you know,
the first couple of dogs I had that you knew.
(04:20):
I know why you got turned off by dogs. I've
heard you talk about it before, and.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Because we had I grew up with the world's greatest dog.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
But go on, yeah you had the Duchess. Yeah, and
I didn't.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
I had anyway along the along the line, if you
own enough dogs, and I think I had a list
of them somewhere. I think I've had twenty three dogs,
and someone at my age might have, you know, six
if they were won by.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
And I raised several litters of dogs.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
But anyway, years back in two thousand and four, yeah,
two thousand and four, I Memorial Day weekend, I was
living in Virginia and I was still living in a
hotel at the time, and I would take my dogs.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
I always traveled with at least a couple of dogs.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
And I had two of them out in the far
back of a parking lot of this hotel, and I
would let them free range so they could poop and
pee before I put them back in the truck. And
it was like a ritual every night. And I never
knew there was a live entrance to this parking lot.
And I saw a vehicle coming as it turned out
(05:34):
to be a full sized delivery van, and both my
dogs were still over this berm and I made the
grave mistake, maybe it was the grave mistake of whistling
form thinking I'd get them in, you know, I'd get
them rounded up before this vehicle came toward me.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
And lo and behold, Zigen.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
Came right up across that road in front of my
eyes and got smacked by a full size It was
a Ford delivery van, and I estimated it to be
maybe about thirty forty maybe forty five miles an hour.
And I watched this happen. I watched this dog get broadsided,
(06:16):
rolled underneath the truck. He was laying on his back,
urinating on the ground, bleeding out of his mouth, and
had I had I had a pistol or something to
euthanize him with, I would because of what I saw
on what I saw on the ground, it was it
was not going to be able to make it anyway.
(06:37):
Called one of the guys that worked for me. He
came and helped me put him in the truck. He
was about a seventy five pound dog and went to
an all night vet that was not far away into town.
They kept a dog till six o'clock in the morning.
He was still, miraculously alive. Cracked ribs on one side
(06:58):
of his body, blood in his blood around his heart, lungs, liver, spleen,
not good. Fortunately, not broken legs, all broken ribs. And
he ended up going to a place, a critical care
place in Richmond, Virginia. He spent seven days there and
I got him back and two months later, maybe two
(07:20):
and a half months later, I actually ran them in
a high level test. We didn't pass, but it wasn't
because of his physical.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Problems.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
It was just because we had a couple of little
foupads in the test.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Later on, and you dedicated this.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
In fact, anytime I've watched the episode that you and
I did on Stage Grouse. I was at a state
park in Indiana maybe ten years later and opened the
dog that opened the kennels on my three dog kennel,
and two of my.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Dogs were stone cold dead.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
Turned out they got into some kind of a poison
or a not anti freeze, but some kind of a poison.
All I had them out in the woods the day before.
So I've had some you know, and anybody's been in
the long enough's had this kind of luck or lack
of luck. These things happen to you, and you just
you just move forward. And that's kind of one of
the reasons there's always more dogs that.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Have to be fed. I can't I can't stop and go.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
But so I've had a pretty good stretch now without
anything happening until Thursday, the eighteenth of this month, I
took off four.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
North Dakota, and I had four dogs in my truck.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
I had a small kennel in the back seat of
my truck for my Cocker Spaniel. I have built in
stainless steel, an aluminum dog box that each has one
dog in it, and a transportation kennel that you can
take in and out of a truck mounted on top
of those dog kennels and bolted down.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
So I'm dry. I got a buff.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
I get out of the house about five thirty in
the morning. It's dark out. I'm heading down south. I
got to get through Indiana and Chicago and work my
way up toward I ninety four.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Yeah, Ronnie's leaving West Michigan, Moskegon County, twin Town, Michigan
right heading south down around the bottom end of Lake Michigan,
and then you're going to head west from there.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Right exactly.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
And I can say that what happened next is my
fault because when I was loading everything up, probably about
four four thirty in the morning, making a final check
with everything. This particular dog he he kennels like if
I point at something he kennels, it could be a
cardboard box, he'll jump in it. And his name is Tagus.
(09:46):
He's a wire haired Visula. And I opened that kennel
door and he jumped up in there, and I.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Closed the door.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
The door appeared to be closed, but I pull on it.
It even has additional safety latches. But this is an
enclosed camper like a cap.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Yeah you got like, yeah, you got a dog box
in a topper.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Yes, in a topper. For lack of a better that's
a perfect description. So again, I I didn't check.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
The door looked like it was closed it obviously it wasn't. Anyway,
I'm proceeding to go down. I stopped for a cup
of coffee. I stop at another stop. I had to
pick some stuff up from somebody and the phone rings.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Now rnrow gotta throw something in here because it's reminding
me of a Ronnie is one of the America's great
long distance drivers, among the among the best, well among
the best long distance drivers. Ronnie used to go, I
don't know if you still use this strategy, I mean
(10:55):
among the best longest I mean bad driver.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
He's not a great driver.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
But in terms of like long haul, m let's just
drive to Florida right now and not stop. Kind of
like driving like among America's best.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
Yeah, for not being a for not having a CDL
license and driving a semi, I'd agree.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
With among the best, so serious about it. He'll pull
in to a gas station and get a cup of
ice and then sit there and just drop those ice
cubes down the back of his shirt.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
That motivated.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
You just slip one slip one down the back of
his shirt kind of and then just that motivated like
he ain't stopping.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Well, that's that's true. I drove most of the way
back from the Arctic Circle to Fairbanks with you.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Against the window, well part of it.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
The other part of the time he argued about the
nsay listening to phone calls.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Okay, so go on, sorry you stopped. You got a coffee.
I just had to throw that in there because I
was wondering if you got a bucket all East Tube.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Yeah, this is a eleven mile trip.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
I'm on and I'm not I'm not pending on stopping,
so I'm fueled up. I'm coffeed up my phone rings.
It was about seven thirty I looked it up in
a call log. It was seven thirty six. And the
person who caretakes my house in Virginia is a fellow
(12:39):
named Bill Bill Walters, and I was down there just
a week before. We can have four dove hunting. And
he doesn't usually call me in the morning. He usually
calls me if there's a problem with the lawnmower or something.
And I pick up the phone and I said, yeah, Bill,
all right, and pick up I answered it on my
dashboard and.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
I say, yeah, what's up?
Speaker 4 (13:00):
He says, Ron, I just got the strangest call from
a California number from a woman. Now, Bill can take
a long time to tell his story. I said, well,
what's up? He said? She said, sir, I'm sorry to
tell you this, but your dog was hit by a
car on I ninety four in Virginia. And I'm taking
(13:22):
it the dog. I have the dog in my car.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Oh back up, she didn't say that. You said I
ninety four in Virginia.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Oh yeah, I'm sorry. Yes, you're right. She said, your
dog wash.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
Your dog was hit on I ninety four in Michigan.
That's what she And this is Bill telling me what
she told him.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Bill's in Virginia.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
Bill's in Virginia at his kitchen table and he answers
the phone. That's what the lady tells him. And he says, well, ma'am,
my dog is sitting by my feet. And he said, so,
I don't know what to tell you, and she's as well,
it has your phone number. I've got it right here.
(14:04):
It has your phone number on a military type dog tag,
but no name. I don't know if you can see that.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Ron is presenting for you people not watching. Ron is
presenting a dog collar exhibit, a orange dog collar, the
dog tags and a number. Don't don't show your phone
number you're gonna get Ronnie's buddy.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
He does want to hear from you.
Speaker 4 (14:29):
He doesn't want to hear from me. So he said, well, ma'am,
I don't know what to tell you. And then she said,
it's an orange car heart collar. This is what she's'
this is what he's translating to me. Time I'm saying, Bill,
well that's impossible. It's just one of those tags you
(14:49):
order at the front counter and somebody's probably got the
number wrong. He goes, yeah, but I lent you that
collar when you were here dove hunting.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
And it hit me like a ton of bricks. I
needed a different collar.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
The one he had on was all just getting gnarly,
and I asked Bill if he had an extra collar.
And the minute that hit me, I started like hyperventilating
and or not breathing. And from seventy two I keep
my spinometer at seventy two on cruise control, I pulled
over like as quick as I could without locking up
(15:25):
the brakes, even got into the grass. A little bit
on the shoulder of the road. And I'm getting a
little emotional now, and I jump out of the car
and I open up the back hood, the back door
like you would on any cap and there I see
the dog kennel door open and the window, the screen
(15:47):
on this sliding window halfway hanging out of the vehicle,
and I just lose it. I mean, I'm just I
didn't even know if. I don't know if I stood
there for two minutes, I don't know if I was crying.
I know, I couldn't walk. And I got right back
(16:10):
in the truck and I called Bill back and I
was I know I was crying, and I said, Bill,
it's tag Us, It's tag Us. It's who's this lady.
And he says, I've got the number. I gave her
your number, and I'll send you her number. And I'm
about at this point, I'm about two miles from the
(16:32):
Indiana line, and I got to turn around and get
an exit and go back, but I don't know where
I'm going back to. And Steve, you know that that
chunk of I ninety four that we come from our
house in Twin Lake. You're only on ninety four for
about thirty five thirty six miles or forty miles now,
(16:52):
so all I know was is on nine ninety four,
And I immediately start calling this.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Woman's number and it goes right to voicemail.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
Write the voicemail, and I call again, and I'm yelling
at my dashboard for this lady to answer. I don't
know her name even yet, and I'm driving north and
I'm thinking, I don't know where to go, so I
just pull off the next exit because I'm like, I
don't want to go all the way to Benton Harbor
if it was in wherever.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
And finally she.
Speaker 4 (17:25):
Calls me up and I said, oh, thank god, I said,
and I said, my name is Ron. She says, my
name is Kristen, and she said, yeah, your dog was
hit on nine ninety four, and I have it in
my truck and I'm bringing it to my veterinarian in
Barryon Springs, Michigan. And I'm right now, I'm in a
(17:46):
parking lot right off the side of of the highway
at a gas station, and I'm shaken. And I finally said,
I said, I think. I said, I'm sure he's dead
or how bad is it? And she said I don't
know how to tell you this, but I was driving
southbound on nine ninety four this morning and I saw
(18:09):
what I thought was a cardboard box up ahead on
the shoulder of the road, on the or in the
left lane of the road. At this point, ninety four
is three lanes wide. And Steve, have you've ever seen
a box floating around on a road? You're afraid something's
in it or it's gonna get stuck under your car,
you know.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
When you see you've seen that?
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Oh yea.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
So she I don't know if she slowed down or
she just noticed it, but she noticed it going in
front of a semi truck, and then the semi truck
was in the middle lane. I went over this with
her again this morning. Semi truck was in the middle lane.
There was an SUV. She didn't describe the brand, but
(18:50):
she it was. She said, an SUV was in the
right lane, the slow lane, as as was she and
she saw this brown object get missed by the truck,
and then with the suv what she saw was darkness
(19:10):
underneath between There was daylight out now the where you
could normally look through someone's you know, vehicle.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
Yeah, well, like something underneath there, and then.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
What she saw was tagus shoot out between the wheels
of the rear of the vehicle. And this is at
full highway speed and start rolling high speed over and
over and over and over and over. She said, like
a like a can rolling down the road.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
And then she thought it was a deer because he's
like that red brown color. And then it stood up.
She said, it stood up.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
It rolled from the car it was in the slow lane,
rolled onto the shoulder just about to the grass, and
it stood up. And all the while she's stopping, she's
getting she's starting to stop, and she said it stood
up and it just stood there, and then she pulled off.
Only got her nose. She told me this this morning
(20:14):
because I wanted more detail. She only put the nose
of her car, the front wheels into the shoulder of
the road, kind of pointing at the grass. And she
opened the door and the dog started walking back out
into the slow lane, and she, I think, she said,
she left the door open, and she started calling the dog,
(20:35):
calling the dog, and he was kind of confused, kind
of walking around in a circle, but still heading back
into the traffic. And then she just went up to
him and grabbed him by the collar and she had
an additional collar in her This is the I told
you this would take forever to tell you, Steve, No,
you're doing good, because part of me can't still I
(20:59):
go back into this craziness of this. She she does volunteer.
Her name is Kristin Clausen and she literally does volunteer
work for a group called Animal Aid of Southwest Michigan.
And her friends have told her, like they've been in
the car with her and she'll see a stray dog.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Or a loose dog with no owner.
Speaker 4 (21:21):
She keeps leashes and collars in her back seat where
if she sees a dog, and her friends have told her, Kristin,
you are gonna get hurt or killed doing this.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
You got to you gotta just call this.
Speaker 4 (21:34):
There's something about this woman that if she sees a dog,
she's got to help. And so she gets the dog
into her front seat of her car. She had to
pick it up, and she put it on the front
seat of the car and immediately calls her vet and
that's a veterinarian clinic in Barry In Springs called two
(21:54):
by two Animal Hospital. What's not open yet, And she
calls the after hours emergency number. They know her because
she brings in, you know, rescue dogs for shots or checkups,
and they tell her to head there. It'll be open
if she gets there before eight o'clock, there'll be people
(22:15):
there waiting for And so when she calls me and
tells me this, she is I might be missing the timeline.
She's telling me that she's already been to the clinic.
She's on her way to work. Now the dog is
at the clinic, and now I've got about a fifteen
(22:36):
mile drive to bury In Springs, and I am still
just the only thing I can think of is that
I got this dog four years ago from the same
town that I stay in in North Dakota, and have
to if the dog isn't already dead, then I'm going
to have to, you know, tell the veterinarian to euthanize it.
(22:56):
And I know this sounds really bizarre, but maybe dog
owners and dog lovers and hunters would understand. My intention
was not to turn around and go home. My intention
was to put a bag of ice on him in
the kennel and bury him as soon as I got
to North Dakota. Now that's kind of weird, but that's
where my head was.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Like burying back where he came from.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
Arion, back where he came from on the prairie.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
And and uh so I'm in traffic and I'm trying
to get there, and it's a fifteen minute drive.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
Now I get there and there's a woman on the
phone at the reception desk, and I want to.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Hold up real quick.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
This all is happening so fast that when you get
the call from Bill, right, you're how many miles from
where she?
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Like?
Speaker 1 (23:47):
This happened so fast, you're only ten miles down the highway, right.
Speaker 4 (23:50):
She said, this happened just north of Sawyer, Michigan. And Sawyer,
Michigan is Exit twelve.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Yeap.
Speaker 4 (23:58):
So the exit she got off I had to turn
around was exit twelve. So this happened somewhere, you know,
north of you know, thirteen miles north of dandel Line,
fourteen miles north something like that. So when I get
the call from Bill, I'm two miles from Indiana. So
she got that dog in the car, called the vet
(24:19):
got that done, and then called Bill in a space
of about ten minutes, yep.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
So when I'm on my way.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
To the vetter ready, she's the dog already is at
the vet and.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
I'm want to save this part for later.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
So I just get to the vet clinic and the
receptionist is on the phone and I'm trying not to
be like that guy, and I'm just like, okay, whatever
it is, it is, so whoever's on the phone's got
something important going on too, And finally she hangs up
and says, going to help you, and I said, yeah,
I'm the guy that had the dog hit on the
interstate today, and she goes, oh, come with me, and
(24:56):
she brings me over to this waiting room five and
I said, and then a vet tech walks in with her,
and I said, could I just go see the dog
instead of going here? And she says, no, We'll bring
the dog in to you, and that I sit down,
and I'm like, that doesn't make any sense. I mean,
what are you going to bring the dog to me
on a on a gurney or you know, in a body.
(25:19):
Steve as God as my witness, she walked that dog
in on a leash and the dog's tail was wagon.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
I sent you pictures. I don't know if it's phil
gonna be able to put.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Yeah, I was gonna have them in post round.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
But if you give me ten seconds, I can pull
them up right now. Just give me give me a
sec here.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Yeah, he'll have up in a minute.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Then you can extra adam, if you're in post, if
you're post post. How am I trying to explain this film? No,
not that picture, Phil, I know I'm moving it.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
That is what my dog looked like when I walked
into the vet and he came up to me. And
you know, it's it's not even a cut. It's actually
like an abrasion across his middle of his brow, above
his eye and on the left side of his eye.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
And yeah, it looks like if you took an iron. Yeah,
it's like a branding iron and laid it across his forehead.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
Yep. And I can't picture what did that. I can't
picture what did that.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
And the weirdest part of it is like I'm still
looking at this dog and I'm crying because he's his
tail is waggoned. He's right between him sitting down, he's
right between my legs. And I asked the vetec, I
said how, and she says, I have no idea.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
I said, but it it got out of my truck.
Speaker 4 (26:51):
On the interstate and she said, I know, but I said, well,
how can this be? And she says, we don't know,
we don't know, and this this part is almost comical.
She said, we gave him a full exam, and if
anybody's ever had their dog in an exam when there's
a limb or a problem, or or they've been hit
(27:12):
or you know, fell off of something, they do a
real extensive leg pull, like they pull the front leg
and they do a complete range of motion on all
four legs. And apparently he didn't have any reaction to that.
And so I'm just beside myself. I'm sitting there with
tears in my eyes, pet in him. And she said,
(27:35):
the only thing we found that we'd like to address
right now.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
Is he has an ear infection. I said, isn't that
the least of my problems?
Speaker 4 (27:49):
She said, she said, from what we can tell, that's
his only problem. And I'm just I don't even I felt.
I kept feeling like I was in a dream and
that I'm gonna wake up, and I'm like, I'm two
hours late for getting on the road when I wanted to,
(28:10):
because it this can't happen, Steve.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
No, It's got to spill out of a moving truck
at seventy two miles an hour around a highway, get
rolled under another truck and know and you got.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
All you got is a ear infection.
Speaker 4 (28:26):
An ear infection, and a curling iron burn. It's it's
it's not. I have been through this one hundred times.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Maybe. I mean, you're good at thinking about things. The
only thing you ever have a semi go by is
so close it almost moves your vehicle.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Oh yeah, dude, that's why I can't.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
I don't understand those people that like to ride that
like to do those bike rides down the long, the
busy roads. Yeah, and every truck just rocks their world,
man like with that wind.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Oh yeah, hate that feeling.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
So I have to assume that I was in front
of the semi or somewhere.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
Obviously I was in front of the semi, but I
don't know how far, whether it was a mile or yep,
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
Well, not a mile, Well, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
That's why we need to find right, someone in America
was dry. They're like someone in America's been telling their friends,
He'll never guess what. I watched a dog come flying
out of a truck and they think the dog's dead.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
Right right?
Speaker 4 (29:35):
And I even yesterday I called the non emergency number
for that county and I gave her the time and
date and she got She got back with me in
about ten minutes and she had no nine to one
one call.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Nobody can corded that dog coming out of the window.
But yeah, you think, like just for I mean, I'm
gonna say it, the real obvious for people. If you
fall from a seventy two mile an hour pick up,
when you hit the ground, you're.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Going seventy two miles an hour exactly.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
Yeah, just time?
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Does it like denudes it?
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Like denudes flesh?
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Is that a word? I mean, it's a word, But
does that apply.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
I don't know, but I know what you're trying to say,
removes it? It would.
Speaker 4 (30:19):
And so I'm still in a vet and I'm still
trying to get my wrap my arms around this, and
the vet comes out to me now and I asked
her the same question, how is this possible? And she says,
I don't know, but the name of the vet clinic
is two by two is a reference in the on
their logo as an arc And she just kind of
(30:45):
she says, I can't tell you, and I'm like this, this.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
Is I mean, it's a it's a miracle.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
He I'll get him out in a minute, and I'll
move my camera down to a chair. But all these
other things are in my head and I'm probably messing
this up because I'm kind of like reliving it.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
So the vet says, i'd.
Speaker 4 (31:08):
Like to take some more X rays and X rays
can also see if there's blood around organs.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
And I don't know.
Speaker 4 (31:15):
I think the X ray is head first because I
got charged for two X rays the first.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
View in an additional view.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
I've got the report here from two by two, so
I said, yes, please do it. And then she comes
back and she says, no broken ribs, nothing in the legs.
So I'm assuming the first was the head X ray
because of the head damage. No fracture in the skull,
(31:45):
no broken bones, no bleeding on the organs. Now, to
go back to that first dog that I brought to
a clinic by Richmond on X rays because they didn't
do an MRI. On X rays, they showed me the
blood around the heart, the blood around the liver, the
it obscures the X ray. Yeah, they can tell when
there's fluid inside of a dog's body. There's nothing inside
(32:10):
this dog's body, Steve. And so I I'm sitting there
with them, and they give me.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
They give me they give me.
Speaker 4 (32:19):
The ear drops, and they give me the instructions for
the ear drops, and they give me a They give
me carprofen for pain, and they give me tras a
dome for anxiety in case he gets anxious or starts
walking around or gets confused.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
That's that's kind of like a not a pain killer,
something to calm.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
A dog down, like a down, understand.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
And I never ended up giving him any tradazone tres dome.
I did give him by prescription. The carprofen. I gave
him that for half a pill once twice a day.
I did that for about three days for pain. Because
the other analogy, she said, well, I know he appears
(33:05):
fine right now, but he's probably going to be like
a person falling off a ladder, getting back on the ladder,
and then getting out of bed in the morning and
be completely stiff, like he got hit by a truck.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (33:17):
But so one of the other weird parts about this
story is had this not happened, and had this lady
Kristen not been on that road that day. There's two
other scenarios obviously, either God himself did this or there's
some I don't care God did it, somebody somebody did it.
(33:40):
But my mechanical thought was, this dog got caught up
in the suction of the semi truck and maybe flattened
out and spun. And could a vehicle straddle a dog
without hitting it?
Speaker 3 (33:57):
I guess if the dog was flat on its side
and had.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
To be flat, because your dog sixty five pounds, man,
some bitch is way higher than the wheel hub.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Oh yeah, he would have to be flat with.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
His start way higher than the transfer cases and all
that stuff.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4 (34:12):
The rear end differential or a shock mount or the muffler,
you know, any of these things would have sliced them
open or killed them.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
And I'll show them to you a little bit.
Speaker 4 (34:26):
There is not a mark on his body except a
little a little patch about the size of a quarter
on his rear elbow. So this dog slid on the
highway vacuumed up by a truck, I don't know. So
that's one of the things we're going to see. If
anybody was on I ninety four. It was June eighteenth,
(34:47):
a Thursday, southbound on nine ninety four. Roughly, I'm gonna
say anywhere from seven fifteen to seven point thirty in
the morning, if you saw a dog on the road,
or if you saw or if you were the person
that said I think I just ran over a deer,
but I didn't feel anything.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
I don't know. Y, Hey, Ronnie, jump, Phil's gonna put
those pictures.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Jump to like, yeah, jump to it real quick.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Jump to how like how the dog could have gotten
out right because he's in a top or in a
dog box.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
Okay, if Phil can go to the picture on the inside.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
We got the exterior right now, right there it is.
Speaker 4 (35:29):
That's the inside of the truck. Tailgate is up, the
hatches up right now, that that dog kennel is.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
I don't think it's Ronnie's truck because there'd be empty
shell casings and empty beer cans everywhere.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
They're they're they're not in the pictures, trust me.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Mixed mixed gauges, you're right, many brands, many gauges and brands,
but just one kind of beer can.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
So that as a fact, Steve's traveling with me. I
put them all in the door pocket to the truck
and it drives them crazy.
Speaker 4 (36:07):
But I reenacted this this morning to because I didn't
take a picture when it happened. This is how the
kennel's mounted up there PERMANENTLYEP.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
So he got out of the air and started roaming
around the truck and on.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
The in the front of the other kennel, there's about
four or you know, eight square feet of floor. That
cooler that you see was on that shelf.
Speaker 4 (36:29):
That shelf is thirteen inches wide and that window is
a glass window with a screen, and that morning I
slid that window open. It wasn't going to be hot,
but it gets hot. Everything's been hot lately, so I
wanted full ventilation for the dogs, YEP, and so that
that glass window was opened. By design, the screen was
(36:52):
in place, but it's just a little pop in screen.
When I opened the tailgate, when I pulled over quick,
that's what I saw. I saw that cooler sitting there,
and there's another toolbox there that had my my dog
first aid kit that was all up on that shelf.
I'm surmising that because I didn't double check that that latch,
(37:17):
probably he could have been out all the way from
twin lake, just sitting on the bottom, you know, kind
of antsy, like, you know, why am why am I?
Speaker 3 (37:25):
Why am I? Why aren't they in a kennel?
Speaker 2 (37:28):
Yeah? Yeah, it's roaming around back there.
Speaker 4 (37:31):
He's roaming around the other two dogs below are probably like, hey,
how'd you get out?
Speaker 3 (37:34):
You know? You know?
Speaker 1 (37:37):
And the son of a bitch, how'd.
Speaker 3 (37:39):
You do that? Lets us out on a trip?
Speaker 4 (37:43):
And I'm surmising that when I changed lanes or got
back on the highway, that that cooler and that toolbox
fell onto the space where he was.
Speaker 3 (37:53):
Yeah, and he jumped back up onto that.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
Shelf, but the door wasn't open, and possibly he just
dogs will lean or sit or try to prop themselves
up on something to sit down. And I surmise that
he leaned on that screen and the screen gave out.
And that other picture again, I want people to know
I did this this morning, because I didn't do it
(38:19):
on the highway.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
Ye that is that is exactly how that screen looked.
Speaker 4 (38:23):
When I opened the tailgate and then looked at the screen,
and my heart felt down to my knees in my feet,
and all I could think about was this.
Speaker 3 (38:34):
You know, you can you picture it? You know the
worst thoughts of anything. Just you've seen roadkills, deer kills, dogs.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
Look like you know what, Ronnie? What Ronnie like in
this to me? He says his daughter. This whole thing,
he says, his daughter felt like, uh, you know what
a wonderful It's a wonderful life. When Jimmy Stewart's there
fixing to jump off that jump off the bridge.
Speaker 3 (39:04):
And they send Clarence and that Clarence heads.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Down there, Ronnie thinks it was Clarence.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
Clarence like creature guided his dog to the ground and
guided his dog to that woman's hands.
Speaker 4 (39:19):
Well, if you can explain how a dog doesn't get
road rash at seventy two miles an hour, I'll take
another explanation.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
You're open for suggestions.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
I'm wide open, Steve. I'm hoping that three people calling
and says, no, it happened to me too.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
It's all the time, and it's incredible.
Speaker 3 (39:47):
It so.
Speaker 4 (39:48):
And then there's two other scenarios that could have played out,
which would have been in this case, now that he's alive, that.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
Could have been worse.
Speaker 4 (39:57):
Because these are all dogs that are you to traveling.
I won't stop and let the dogs out or check
on him until I need to tank a gas. From Michigan,
I would get all the way to Madison, Wisconsin. I
do this route a lot, and somewhere around Madison, I
would have stopped, fueled up and taken all the dogs out,
(40:18):
and I would have opened that kennel.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
I would have opened that door, and I would have
had six hours.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
Yeah, of what the hell?
Speaker 3 (40:27):
What the hell?
Speaker 4 (40:28):
I don't even know if I could have drove back.
The other scenario is I could have looked in my
side view mirror to change lanes. I could have witnessed
him fallout, and I probably would have crashed. I mean,
what would you do if you saw your dog.
Speaker 3 (40:47):
Fall out of your car on a highway while you
were driving. I don't think you could.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
I'd think to myself, Man, my kids are gonna be
worked up about this.
Speaker 4 (40:56):
Yeah, well, and I thought about that too, about this
is the truth. I thought about how I'm not a
guy who posts. You know, I've looked out of all
those dogs I've had, and those are dogs that I've
kept for years at a time, not dogs that I've
had for a year and didn't work out, or or
gave to somebody who needed a dog, and I had
(41:16):
extra pupps dogs that I've had and hunted. I've never
put a post up on Facebook, and I don't say
anything to people do because they're good friends of mine
to do it. I never post anything about one of
my dogs dying. People find out it either through my
podcast or when I talked to him at peasant Fest,
you know, like, Hey, how's Bravo and I saw he
(41:37):
passed away last year. I I just that's that's just
something that's just part of me, and it's something you
sign up for when you when you get a dog,
and you that's your that's.
Speaker 3 (41:48):
Your thing, and that's how I handle it.
Speaker 4 (41:51):
So I fully when I was driving to that vet,
I had I had no intention on telling anybody about
this except up my friends on the hunting trip and
the people I know there that I got the dog from, actually,
and I would have probably told my listeners at.
Speaker 3 (42:09):
Some point or something. I don't know. I don't know
how I would have handled it.
Speaker 2 (42:13):
But Ronnie's referring to the Hunting Dog podcast, Yes.
Speaker 3 (42:19):
Which thanks to you well, we started on the same
day in January twenty fifteen. We did.
Speaker 4 (42:27):
We did that podcast at the kitchen table in Texas.
And when I said, you mean you can do this
in the kitchen, I went home.
Speaker 3 (42:36):
I went home and bought recording equipment.
Speaker 1 (42:39):
And heay, I just got you know what's funny, man,
I just got to I drew a crane tag here
and I just got my second crane yesterday morning. You
allowed two cranes when you draw a crain tag here.
Speaker 3 (42:48):
We still don't have it in Michigan, Steve, that's a.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
Great one of the great travesties. We'll get we'll get
it sorted out.
Speaker 3 (42:57):
So yeah, I started that just to to stories about
hunting trips and dogs and blah blah blah. And it's turning.
Speaker 4 (43:03):
I'm still doing it to this day. But I'll get
I'm gonna put this camera down. Oh is there a no,
that's the only two pictures that are important.
Speaker 2 (43:12):
Yeah, let's see.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
Let's see the dog. Yeah, let's see the dog, and
we'll say goodbye. We'll reissue a call for anyone that
can come in and find if you heard a story
where like you heard a story from someone that told
a story about watching a dog come out of a truck,
or someone thinks they hit and kill the dog and
then they come home and they're all sad about hitting
and killing the dog anything like that.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
Send them our way or send him around his way.
Speaker 3 (43:44):
Okay, can you see him.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
Dog Lazarus. It's the Lazarus dog. His other dogs are
pissed now.
Speaker 3 (44:07):
Yeah, they're all off. So his uh, his scar is
just above gone. He's starting to grow hair over his eyebrow.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
That's a good look at the dog man that.
Speaker 3 (44:19):
There is not a mark on his didn't break a nail,
didn't chip a tooth.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
He's huh and his person.
Speaker 4 (44:30):
And four days later, I, you know, I certainly wanted
to give him a break, and I fully expected, Honestly,
I just assumed there'd be some damage to his head
and if he would have, he was curled up in
front of my seat for you know, nineteen hours of
more driving. Let them out and I slept in a
(44:50):
couple of rest areas, but for a nap. I didn't
do the ice trick this time, Steve, but you're right,
that is a trick of mine.
Speaker 3 (44:59):
And I gave him a few days.
Speaker 4 (45:00):
But when I was at the vet and they gave
me a leash, I walked into my truck and he
jumped up into the front seat.
Speaker 3 (45:08):
Of my truck.
Speaker 2 (45:09):
He's done at the bag.
Speaker 3 (45:11):
Well, I didn't want to get PTSD. I mean, how
would you like to be put back in that kettle.
Speaker 1 (45:21):
Man?
Speaker 4 (45:21):
How you doing this twice? I've been down this road
and honestly, uh so during the week that's he he
went right back into that truck and right back in.
You know, I triple checked the latches and I'm actually
gonna install on the lower kennels. I'm going to install
some extra secondary hatch because this kennel has secondary latches.
(45:46):
And I want everybody who's saying under their breath, it's
your fault, Ronnie, they're one hundred percent right. I should
have double checked that door and hit the appropriate extra latch,
and I wouldn't be on this store the show today
with you.
Speaker 3 (46:01):
But it's gonna be one of the great all time
stories of a dog living.
Speaker 4 (46:05):
Through something that it's impossible, not a other than those
those cuts on or those abrasions on his forehead.
Speaker 3 (46:14):
I don't know, if you didn't know me, Steve, would
you believe this story?
Speaker 1 (46:20):
No, I would say if I didn't know you, I'd say,
I think the dog got out somewhere else, like at
the rest stop.
Speaker 4 (46:27):
Or I don't know what telling he said and something
look like that, and then the story was like no,
I saw it, And then somebody else told the story,
and some pretty soon the story is no, I saw
the dog jump out of a truck.
Speaker 1 (46:38):
No, I'll tell people Ronnie's Ronnie is quicker to tell
a story about himself looking bad. He's about himself look good.
Matter of fact, Ronnie don't tell stories where Ronnie looks good.
Ronnie only tells stories when Ronnie looks like an ass.
Speaker 3 (46:54):
You said that, Steve on the episode that we did
on the Mountain Grouse. You said, he's he's the most
self deprecating buddy.
Speaker 1 (47:05):
I know, yeah, and that narration, but yeah, he only
likes stories where he looks like an idiots.
Speaker 3 (47:13):
Well, they're funnier, it's funnier.
Speaker 1 (47:16):
Well listen, man, I'm glad the dog's live. I'm glad
you're live and happy, Steve.
Speaker 3 (47:22):
I want to do I want to in case I
missed anything. I want to thank Kristin Klausen.
Speaker 1 (47:26):
Yep, that's the dog Savior.
Speaker 3 (47:29):
That's the dog Savior.
Speaker 4 (47:30):
She volunteers with Animal Aid of Southwest Michigan, and the
clinic was two by two Animal clinic in barry In Springs, and.
Speaker 3 (47:40):
I don't know. Oh I guess, uh yeah, no kidding.
Speaker 4 (47:45):
One fact I forgot to tell you is when she
pulled up to the vet clinic, they were aware that
she was coming, and they rolled a gurney out to
her car. She opened the door and walked the dog
out onto the sidewalk. So I've been told to play
the lottery. I've been told to start going back to church.
I've been told to quit drinking, and I've been told
(48:08):
to quit smoking. I haven't done any of those things yet.
Speaker 2 (48:16):
But yeah, you're pretty good the way you are. Man.
We'll keep you the way you are, all right.
Speaker 3 (48:22):
So yeah, I ninety four June or September eighteenth, somewhere
around seven point fifteen in the morning, southbound YE ninety four,
about maybe thirteen fourteen miles north of the Indiana Line.
Speaker 1 (48:39):
Get a hold of us. You can go to the
meat Eater at the Metater podcast subject line Ronnie's Dog.
You can get a hold of Ronnie if you're on
YouTube going to the comment section say hey I saw
that dog.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
Get hit.
Speaker 1 (48:54):
Find Ronnie at the Hunting Dog podcast.
Speaker 2 (48:57):
Or on a highway near you. Thank you so much.
Ronnie love you
Speaker 3 (49:04):
Thank you, I love you too, Steve, thank you, Body,
Okay, ladies and gentlemen, we have another emergency episode of
the Meat Eater podcast where something happens with such significance
that you just have to go with it.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Live now flop.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Dear Dad, I got a text from my beloved friend,
Ronald F.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Bain.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
He says, is there a time a day or two
of the week that we could have a conversation. I
have a story. When I tell you the story, you
will not believe it. But it's going to take some time.
I'm intrigued, he replies, I say, I'm intrigued. He replies,
I would put it on a scale if Jesus was
buried and rose again three days later. Well that and
(00:46):
that story's got a lot of press.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Yeah, but that's an old story and I don't know
any witnesses. I don't know any witnesses to that story.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
In this one, well, this one, there's a witness that
this story. There's a witness, and we need to find them.
That's the objective. So if you're if you're listening or watching,
pay special attention to this story. It's a story about
the salvation of a dog, the resurrection of a dog,
and there's a person, there's a person in this country
(01:20):
of tremendous interest, possibly two or three people of tremendous interest,
if we can find them.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Yeah, we're looking for one more puzzle piece.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
But first, Oh go ahead, No, you're good.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
No, yeah, I said, we're looking for one more. I've
got as much of the story as it could be accumulated.
But I just wanted to figure maybe in your audience
somebody saw something or got home and said, you won't
believe what I saw today.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yep, and they're out there. We're going to find them.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Yeah, we're hoping. We're hoping.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Uh, but first uh meet either live the Christmas two
are headed to the South.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Okay, we got here one second.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Fayetteville, Arkansas has sold out, so scratch that. But we
got December seventeenth, Birmingham, Alabama at the Lyric. December eighteen, Nashville,
Tennessee at Marathon Music Works. December nineteenth, Memphis, Tennessee at
Minglewood Hall. The twentieth is FAYETTEVILLEA was too late twenty first, Dallas, Texas,
(02:19):
Texas Theater, December twenty second, Austin, Texas at the Paramount
me The Latvian Lover Clay Nukeombe Brent Reeves, Doctor Randall,
all headed out hitting the road. A lot of laughs, giveaway,
a lot of prizes, music, very entertaining night. So get
(02:39):
your girlfriend what she actually wants. There's some stupid slippers.
Get her tickets to the Christmas Tour. Another thing, it's
been out for a while but I haven't mentioned this yet.
We got a new Meat Eater storm Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Stop
in there. It's open right now. We had the opening,
(03:02):
it was great, tons of people came out. It's still there.
It'll be there in perpetuity, the Meat Eater store in Milwaukee.
So if you're in that region, go check that out.
Another thing is we got another We got another six
pack of Meat Eater episodes season thirteen coming out in
a few weeks on October twentieth, with no further ado.
(03:26):
My special friend Ronnie Bain is gonna tell us a
dog story.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
And Ronnie, if you want to set it up with
a little like, if you want to set it up
with a little bit of dog history about your dogs,
you were the first guy knew who got serious about dogs.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
I mean like really serious that would.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Have gangs of them and be messing with them and
experimenting with them and not just like a dog that
you had and then that dog dies and you get
another one. It's kind of how dog ownership generally went
in our area.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
Yeah, most people could only do one dog, and uh
I I kind of jumped with both feet into it
and started. You know, I got involved with a Versatle
Dog Club. I apprenticed and became a judge and a
senior judge for for Versalle hunting dogs. But you know,
the first couple of dogs I had that you knew.
(04:20):
I know why you got turned off by dogs. I've
heard you talk about it before, and.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Because we had I grew up with the world's greatest dog.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
But go on, yeah you had the Duchess. Yeah, and
I didn't.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
I had anyway along the along the line, if you
own enough dogs, and I think I had a list
of them somewhere. I think I've had twenty three dogs,
and someone at my age might have, you know, six
if they were won by.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
And I raised several litters of dogs.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
But anyway, years back in two thousand and four, yeah,
two thousand and four, I Memorial Day weekend, I was
living in Virginia and I was still living in a
hotel at the time, and I would take my dogs.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
I always traveled with at least a couple of dogs.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
And I had two of them out in the far
back of a parking lot of this hotel, and I
would let them free range so they could poop and
pee before I put them back in the truck. And
it was like a ritual every night. And I never
knew there was a live entrance to this parking lot.
And I saw a vehicle coming as it turned out
(05:34):
to be a full sized delivery van, and both my
dogs were still over this berm and I made the
grave mistake, maybe it was the grave mistake of whistling
form thinking I'd get them in, you know, I'd get
them rounded up before this vehicle came toward me.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
And lo and behold, Zigen.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
Came right up across that road in front of my
eyes and got smacked by a full size It was
a Ford delivery van, and I estimated it to be
maybe about thirty forty maybe forty five miles an hour.
And I watched this happen. I watched this dog get broadsided,
(06:16):
rolled underneath the truck. He was laying on his back,
urinating on the ground, bleeding out of his mouth, and
had I had I had a pistol or something to
euthanize him with, I would because of what I saw
on what I saw on the ground, it was it
was not going to be able to make it anyway.
(06:37):
Called one of the guys that worked for me. He
came and helped me put him in the truck. He
was about a seventy five pound dog and went to
an all night vet that was not far away into town.
They kept a dog till six o'clock in the morning.
He was still, miraculously alive. Cracked ribs on one side
(06:58):
of his body, blood in his blood around his heart, lungs, liver, spleen,
not good. Fortunately, not broken legs, all broken ribs. And
he ended up going to a place, a critical care
place in Richmond, Virginia. He spent seven days there and
I got him back and two months later, maybe two
(07:20):
and a half months later, I actually ran them in
a high level test. We didn't pass, but it wasn't
because of his physical.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Problems.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
It was just because we had a couple of little
foupads in the test.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Later on, and you dedicated this.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
In fact, anytime I've watched the episode that you and
I did on Stage Grouse. I was at a state
park in Indiana maybe ten years later and opened the
dog that opened the kennels on my three dog kennel,
and two of my.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Dogs were stone cold dead.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
Turned out they got into some kind of a poison
or a not anti freeze, but some kind of a poison.
All I had them out in the woods the day before.
So I've had some you know, and anybody's been in
the long enough's had this kind of luck or lack
of luck. These things happen to you, and you just
you just move forward. And that's kind of one of
the reasons there's always more dogs that.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Have to be fed. I can't I can't stop and go.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
But so I've had a pretty good stretch now without
anything happening until Thursday, the eighteenth of this month, I
took off four.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
North Dakota, and I had four dogs in my truck.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
I had a small kennel in the back seat of
my truck for my Cocker Spaniel. I have built in
stainless steel, an aluminum dog box that each has one
dog in it, and a transportation kennel that you can
take in and out of a truck mounted on top
of those dog kennels and bolted down.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
So I'm dry. I got a buff.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
I get out of the house about five thirty in
the morning. It's dark out. I'm heading down south. I
got to get through Indiana and Chicago and work my
way up toward I ninety four.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Yeah, Ronnie's leaving West Michigan, Moskegon County, twin Town, Michigan
right heading south down around the bottom end of Lake Michigan,
and then you're going to head west from there.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Right exactly.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
And I can say that what happened next is my
fault because when I was loading everything up, probably about
four four thirty in the morning, making a final check
with everything. This particular dog he he kennels like if
I point at something he kennels, it could be a
cardboard box, he'll jump in it. And his name is Tagus.
(09:46):
He's a wire haired Visula. And I opened that kennel
door and he jumped up in there, and I.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Closed the door.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
The door appeared to be closed, but I pull on it.
It even has additional safety latches. But this is an
enclosed camper like a cap.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Yeah you got like, yeah, you got a dog box
in a topper.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Yes, in a topper. For lack of a better that's
a perfect description. So again, I I didn't check.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
The door looked like it was closed it obviously it wasn't. Anyway,
I'm proceeding to go down. I stopped for a cup
of coffee. I stop at another stop. I had to
pick some stuff up from somebody and the phone rings.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Now rnrow gotta throw something in here because it's reminding
me of a Ronnie is one of the America's great
long distance drivers, among the among the best, well among
the best long distance drivers. Ronnie used to go, I
don't know if you still use this strategy, I mean
(10:55):
among the best longest I mean bad driver.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
He's not a great driver.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
But in terms of like long haul, m let's just
drive to Florida right now and not stop. Kind of
like driving like among America's best.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
Yeah, for not being a for not having a CDL
license and driving a semi, I'd agree.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
With among the best, so serious about it. He'll pull
in to a gas station and get a cup of
ice and then sit there and just drop those ice
cubes down the back of his shirt.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
That motivated.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
You just slip one slip one down the back of
his shirt kind of and then just that motivated like
he ain't stopping.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Well, that's that's true. I drove most of the way
back from the Arctic Circle to Fairbanks with you.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Against the window, well part of it.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
The other part of the time he argued about the
nsay listening to phone calls.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Okay, so go on, sorry you stopped. You got a coffee.
I just had to throw that in there because I
was wondering if you got a bucket all East Tube.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Yeah, this is a eleven mile trip.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
I'm on and I'm not I'm not pending on stopping,
so I'm fueled up. I'm coffeed up my phone rings.
It was about seven thirty I looked it up in
a call log. It was seven thirty six. And the
person who caretakes my house in Virginia is a fellow
(12:39):
named Bill Bill Walters, and I was down there just
a week before. We can have four dove hunting. And
he doesn't usually call me in the morning. He usually
calls me if there's a problem with the lawnmower or something.
And I pick up the phone and I said, yeah, Bill,
all right, and pick up I answered it on my
dashboard and.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
I say, yeah, what's up?
Speaker 4 (13:00):
He says, Ron, I just got the strangest call from
a California number from a woman. Now, Bill can take
a long time to tell his story. I said, well,
what's up? He said? She said, sir, I'm sorry to
tell you this, but your dog was hit by a
car on I ninety four in Virginia. And I'm taking
(13:22):
it the dog. I have the dog in my car.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Oh back up, she didn't say that. You said I
ninety four in Virginia.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Oh yeah, I'm sorry. Yes, you're right. She said, your
dog wash.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
Your dog was hit on I ninety four in Michigan.
That's what she And this is Bill telling me what
she told him.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Bill's in Virginia.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
Bill's in Virginia at his kitchen table and he answers
the phone. That's what the lady tells him. And he says, well, ma'am,
my dog is sitting by my feet. And he said, so,
I don't know what to tell you, and she's as well,
it has your phone number. I've got it right here.
(14:04):
It has your phone number on a military type dog tag,
but no name. I don't know if you can see that.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Ron is presenting for you people not watching. Ron is
presenting a dog collar exhibit, a orange dog collar, the
dog tags and a number. Don't don't show your phone
number you're gonna get Ronnie's buddy.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
He does want to hear from you.
Speaker 4 (14:29):
He doesn't want to hear from me. So he said, well, ma'am,
I don't know what to tell you. And then she said,
it's an orange car heart collar. This is what she's'
this is what he's translating to me. Time I'm saying, Bill,
well that's impossible. It's just one of those tags you
(14:49):
order at the front counter and somebody's probably got the
number wrong. He goes, yeah, but I lent you that
collar when you were here dove hunting.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
And it hit me like a ton of bricks. I
needed a different collar.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
The one he had on was all just getting gnarly,
and I asked Bill if he had an extra collar.
And the minute that hit me, I started like hyperventilating
and or not breathing. And from seventy two I keep
my spinometer at seventy two on cruise control, I pulled
over like as quick as I could without locking up
(15:25):
the brakes, even got into the grass. A little bit
on the shoulder of the road. And I'm getting a
little emotional now, and I jump out of the car
and I open up the back hood, the back door
like you would on any cap and there I see
the dog kennel door open and the window, the screen
(15:47):
on this sliding window halfway hanging out of the vehicle,
and I just lose it. I mean, I'm just I
didn't even know if. I don't know if I stood
there for two minutes, I don't know if I was crying.
I know, I couldn't walk. And I got right back
(16:10):
in the truck and I called Bill back and I
was I know I was crying, and I said, Bill,
it's tag Us, It's tag Us. It's who's this lady.
And he says, I've got the number. I gave her
your number, and I'll send you her number. And I'm
about at this point, I'm about two miles from the
(16:32):
Indiana line, and I got to turn around and get
an exit and go back, but I don't know where
I'm going back to. And Steve, you know that that
chunk of I ninety four that we come from our
house in Twin Lake. You're only on ninety four for
about thirty five thirty six miles or forty miles now,
(16:52):
so all I know was is on nine ninety four,
And I immediately start calling this.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Woman's number and it goes right to voicemail.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
Write the voicemail, and I call again, and I'm yelling
at my dashboard for this lady to answer. I don't
know her name even yet, and I'm driving north and
I'm thinking, I don't know where to go, so I
just pull off the next exit because I'm like, I
don't want to go all the way to Benton Harbor
if it was in wherever.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
And finally she.
Speaker 4 (17:25):
Calls me up and I said, oh, thank god, I said,
and I said, my name is Ron. She says, my
name is Kristen, and she said, yeah, your dog was
hit on nine ninety four, and I have it in
my truck and I'm bringing it to my veterinarian in
Barryon Springs, Michigan. And I'm right now, I'm in a
(17:46):
parking lot right off the side of of the highway
at a gas station, and I'm shaken. And I finally said,
I said, I think. I said, I'm sure he's dead
or how bad is it? And she said I don't
know how to tell you this, but I was driving
southbound on nine ninety four this morning and I saw
(18:09):
what I thought was a cardboard box up ahead on
the shoulder of the road, on the or in the
left lane of the road. At this point, ninety four
is three lanes wide. And Steve, have you've ever seen
a box floating around on a road? You're afraid something's
in it or it's gonna get stuck under your car,
you know.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
When you see you've seen that?
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Oh yea.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
So she I don't know if she slowed down or
she just noticed it, but she noticed it going in
front of a semi truck, and then the semi truck
was in the middle lane. I went over this with
her again this morning. Semi truck was in the middle lane.
There was an SUV. She didn't describe the brand, but
(18:50):
she it was. She said, an SUV was in the
right lane, the slow lane, as as was she and
she saw this brown object get missed by the truck,
and then with the suv what she saw was darkness
(19:10):
underneath between There was daylight out now the where you
could normally look through someone's you know, vehicle.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
Yeah, well, like something underneath there, and then.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
What she saw was tagus shoot out between the wheels
of the rear of the vehicle. And this is at
full highway speed and start rolling high speed over and
over and over and over and over. She said, like
a like a can rolling down the road.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
And then she thought it was a deer because he's
like that red brown color. And then it stood up.
She said, it stood up.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
It rolled from the car it was in the slow lane,
rolled onto the shoulder just about to the grass, and
it stood up. And all the while she's stopping, she's
getting she's starting to stop, and she said it stood
up and it just stood there, and then she pulled off.
Only got her nose. She told me this this morning
(20:14):
because I wanted more detail. She only put the nose
of her car, the front wheels into the shoulder of
the road, kind of pointing at the grass. And she
opened the door and the dog started walking back out
into the slow lane, and she, I think, she said,
she left the door open, and she started calling the dog,
(20:35):
calling the dog, and he was kind of confused, kind
of walking around in a circle, but still heading back
into the traffic. And then she just went up to
him and grabbed him by the collar and she had
an additional collar in her This is the I told
you this would take forever to tell you, Steve, No,
you're doing good, because part of me can't still I
(20:59):
go back into this craziness of this. She she does volunteer.
Her name is Kristin Clausen and she literally does volunteer
work for a group called Animal Aid of Southwest Michigan.
And her friends have told her, like they've been in
the car with her and she'll see a stray dog.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Or a loose dog with no owner.
Speaker 4 (21:21):
She keeps leashes and collars in her back seat where
if she sees a dog, and her friends have told her, Kristin,
you are gonna get hurt or killed doing this.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
You got to you gotta just call this.
Speaker 4 (21:34):
There's something about this woman that if she sees a dog,
she's got to help. And so she gets the dog
into her front seat of her car. She had to
pick it up, and she put it on the front
seat of the car and immediately calls her vet and
that's a veterinarian clinic in Barry In Springs called two
(21:54):
by two Animal Hospital. What's not open yet, And she
calls the after hours emergency number. They know her because
she brings in, you know, rescue dogs for shots or checkups,
and they tell her to head there. It'll be open
if she gets there before eight o'clock, there'll be people
(22:15):
there waiting for And so when she calls me and
tells me this, she is I might be missing the timeline.
She's telling me that she's already been to the clinic.
She's on her way to work. Now the dog is
at the clinic, and now I've got about a fifteen
(22:36):
mile drive to bury In Springs, and I am still
just the only thing I can think of is that
I got this dog four years ago from the same
town that I stay in in North Dakota, and have
to if the dog isn't already dead, then I'm going
to have to, you know, tell the veterinarian to euthanize it.
(22:56):
And I know this sounds really bizarre, but maybe dog
owners and dog lovers and hunters would understand. My intention
was not to turn around and go home. My intention
was to put a bag of ice on him in
the kennel and bury him as soon as I got
to North Dakota. Now that's kind of weird, but that's
where my head was.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Like burying back where he came from.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
Arion, back where he came from on the prairie.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
And and uh so I'm in traffic and I'm trying
to get there, and it's a fifteen minute drive.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
Now I get there and there's a woman on the
phone at the reception desk, and I want to.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Hold up real quick.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
This all is happening so fast that when you get
the call from Bill, right, you're how many miles from
where she?
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Like?
Speaker 1 (23:47):
This happened so fast, you're only ten miles down the highway, right.
Speaker 4 (23:50):
She said, this happened just north of Sawyer, Michigan. And Sawyer,
Michigan is Exit twelve.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Yeap.
Speaker 4 (23:58):
So the exit she got off I had to turn
around was exit twelve. So this happened somewhere, you know,
north of you know, thirteen miles north of dandel Line,
fourteen miles north something like that. So when I get
the call from Bill, I'm two miles from Indiana. So
she got that dog in the car, called the vet
(24:19):
got that done, and then called Bill in a space
of about ten minutes, yep.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
So when I'm on my way.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
To the vetter ready, she's the dog already is at
the vet and.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
I'm want to save this part for later.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
So I just get to the vet clinic and the
receptionist is on the phone and I'm trying not to
be like that guy, and I'm just like, okay, whatever
it is, it is, so whoever's on the phone's got
something important going on too, And finally she hangs up
and says, going to help you, and I said, yeah,
I'm the guy that had the dog hit on the
interstate today, and she goes, oh, come with me, and
(24:56):
she brings me over to this waiting room five and
I said, and then a vet tech walks in with her,
and I said, could I just go see the dog
instead of going here? And she says, no, We'll bring
the dog in to you, and that I sit down,
and I'm like, that doesn't make any sense. I mean,
what are you going to bring the dog to me
on a on a gurney or you know, in a body.
(25:19):
Steve as God as my witness, she walked that dog
in on a leash and the dog's tail was wagon.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
I sent you pictures. I don't know if it's phil
gonna be able to put.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Yeah, I was gonna have them in post round.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
But if you give me ten seconds, I can pull
them up right now. Just give me give me a
sec here.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Yeah, he'll have up in a minute.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Then you can extra adam, if you're in post, if
you're post post. How am I trying to explain this film? No,
not that picture, Phil, I know I'm moving it.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
That is what my dog looked like when I walked
into the vet and he came up to me. And
you know, it's it's not even a cut. It's actually
like an abrasion across his middle of his brow, above
his eye and on the left side of his eye.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
And yeah, it looks like if you took an iron. Yeah,
it's like a branding iron and laid it across his forehead.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
Yep. And I can't picture what did that. I can't
picture what did that.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
And the weirdest part of it is like I'm still
looking at this dog and I'm crying because he's his
tail is waggoned. He's right between him sitting down, he's
right between my legs. And I asked the vetec, I
said how, and she says, I have no idea.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
I said, but it it got out of my truck.
Speaker 4 (26:51):
On the interstate and she said, I know, but I said, well,
how can this be? And she says, we don't know,
we don't know, and this this part is almost comical.
She said, we gave him a full exam, and if
anybody's ever had their dog in an exam when there's
a limb or a problem, or or they've been hit
(27:12):
or you know, fell off of something, they do a
real extensive leg pull, like they pull the front leg
and they do a complete range of motion on all
four legs. And apparently he didn't have any reaction to that.
And so I'm just beside myself. I'm sitting there with
tears in my eyes, pet in him. And she said,
(27:35):
the only thing we found that we'd like to address
right now.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
Is he has an ear infection. I said, isn't that
the least of my problems?
Speaker 4 (27:49):
She said, she said, from what we can tell, that's
his only problem. And I'm just I don't even I felt.
I kept feeling like I was in a dream and
that I'm gonna wake up, and I'm like, I'm two
hours late for getting on the road when I wanted to,
(28:10):
because it this can't happen, Steve.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
No, It's got to spill out of a moving truck
at seventy two miles an hour around a highway, get
rolled under another truck and know and you got.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
All you got is a ear infection.
Speaker 4 (28:26):
An ear infection, and a curling iron burn. It's it's
it's not. I have been through this one hundred times.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Maybe. I mean, you're good at thinking about things. The
only thing you ever have a semi go by is
so close it almost moves your vehicle.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Oh yeah, dude, that's why I can't.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
I don't understand those people that like to ride that
like to do those bike rides down the long, the
busy roads. Yeah, and every truck just rocks their world,
man like with that wind.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Oh yeah, hate that feeling.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
So I have to assume that I was in front
of the semi or somewhere.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
Obviously I was in front of the semi, but I
don't know how far, whether it was a mile or yep,
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
Well, not a mile, Well, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
That's why we need to find right, someone in America
was dry. They're like someone in America's been telling their friends,
He'll never guess what. I watched a dog come flying
out of a truck and they think the dog's dead.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
Right right?
Speaker 4 (29:35):
And I even yesterday I called the non emergency number
for that county and I gave her the time and
date and she got She got back with me in
about ten minutes and she had no nine to one
one call.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Nobody can corded that dog coming out of the window.
But yeah, you think, like just for I mean, I'm
gonna say it, the real obvious for people. If you
fall from a seventy two mile an hour pick up,
when you hit the ground, you're.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Going seventy two miles an hour exactly.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
Yeah, just time?
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Does it like denudes it?
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Like denudes flesh?
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Is that a word? I mean, it's a word, But
does that apply.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
I don't know, but I know what you're trying to say,
removes it? It would.
Speaker 4 (30:19):
And so I'm still in a vet and I'm still
trying to get my wrap my arms around this, and
the vet comes out to me now and I asked
her the same question, how is this possible? And she says,
I don't know, but the name of the vet clinic
is two by two is a reference in the on
their logo as an arc And she just kind of
(30:45):
she says, I can't tell you, and I'm like this, this.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
Is I mean, it's a it's a miracle.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
He I'll get him out in a minute, and I'll
move my camera down to a chair. But all these
other things are in my head and I'm probably messing
this up because I'm kind of like reliving it.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
So the vet says, i'd.
Speaker 4 (31:08):
Like to take some more X rays and X rays
can also see if there's blood around organs.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
And I don't know.
Speaker 4 (31:15):
I think the X ray is head first because I
got charged for two X rays the first.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
View in an additional view.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
I've got the report here from two by two, so
I said, yes, please do it. And then she comes
back and she says, no broken ribs, nothing in the legs.
So I'm assuming the first was the head X ray
because of the head damage. No fracture in the skull,
(31:45):
no broken bones, no bleeding on the organs. Now, to
go back to that first dog that I brought to
a clinic by Richmond on X rays because they didn't
do an MRI. On X rays, they showed me the
blood around the heart, the blood around the liver, the
it obscures the X ray. Yeah, they can tell when
there's fluid inside of a dog's body. There's nothing inside
(32:10):
this dog's body, Steve. And so I I'm sitting there
with them, and they give me.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
They give me they give me.
Speaker 4 (32:19):
The ear drops, and they give me the instructions for
the ear drops, and they give me a They give
me carprofen for pain, and they give me tras a
dome for anxiety in case he gets anxious or starts
walking around or gets confused.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
That's that's kind of like a not a pain killer,
something to calm.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
A dog down, like a down, understand.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
And I never ended up giving him any tradazone tres dome.
I did give him by prescription. The carprofen. I gave
him that for half a pill once twice a day.
I did that for about three days for pain. Because
the other analogy, she said, well, I know he appears
(33:05):
fine right now, but he's probably going to be like
a person falling off a ladder, getting back on the ladder,
and then getting out of bed in the morning and
be completely stiff, like he got hit by a truck.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (33:17):
But so one of the other weird parts about this
story is had this not happened, and had this lady
Kristen not been on that road that day. There's two
other scenarios obviously, either God himself did this or there's
some I don't care God did it, somebody somebody did it.
(33:40):
But my mechanical thought was, this dog got caught up
in the suction of the semi truck and maybe flattened
out and spun. And could a vehicle straddle a dog
without hitting it?
Speaker 3 (33:57):
I guess if the dog was flat on its side
and had.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
To be flat, because your dog sixty five pounds, man,
some bitch is way higher than the wheel hub.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Oh yeah, he would have to be flat with.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
His start way higher than the transfer cases and all
that stuff.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4 (34:12):
The rear end differential or a shock mount or the muffler,
you know, any of these things would have sliced them
open or killed them.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
And I'll show them to you a little bit.
Speaker 4 (34:26):
There is not a mark on his body except a
little a little patch about the size of a quarter
on his rear elbow. So this dog slid on the
highway vacuumed up by a truck, I don't know. So
that's one of the things we're going to see. If
anybody was on I ninety four. It was June eighteenth,
(34:47):
a Thursday, southbound on nine ninety four. Roughly, I'm gonna
say anywhere from seven fifteen to seven point thirty in
the morning, if you saw a dog on the road,
or if you saw or if you were the person
that said I think I just ran over a deer,
but I didn't feel anything.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
I don't know. Y, Hey, Ronnie, jump, Phil's gonna put
those pictures.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Jump to like, yeah, jump to it real quick.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Jump to how like how the dog could have gotten
out right because he's in a top or in a
dog box.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
Okay, if Phil can go to the picture on the inside.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
We got the exterior right now, right there it is.
Speaker 4 (35:29):
That's the inside of the truck. Tailgate is up, the
hatches up right now, that that dog kennel is.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
I don't think it's Ronnie's truck because there'd be empty
shell casings and empty beer cans everywhere.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
They're they're they're not in the pictures, trust me.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Mixed mixed gauges, you're right, many brands, many gauges and brands,
but just one kind of beer can.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
So that as a fact, Steve's traveling with me. I
put them all in the door pocket to the truck
and it drives them crazy.
Speaker 4 (36:07):
But I reenacted this this morning to because I didn't
take a picture when it happened. This is how the
kennel's mounted up there PERMANENTLYEP.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
So he got out of the air and started roaming
around the truck and on.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
The in the front of the other kennel, there's about
four or you know, eight square feet of floor. That
cooler that you see was on that shelf.
Speaker 4 (36:29):
That shelf is thirteen inches wide and that window is
a glass window with a screen, and that morning I
slid that window open. It wasn't going to be hot,
but it gets hot. Everything's been hot lately, so I
wanted full ventilation for the dogs, YEP, and so that
that glass window was opened. By design, the screen was
(36:52):
in place, but it's just a little pop in screen.
When I opened the tailgate, when I pulled over quick,
that's what I saw. I saw that cooler sitting there,
and there's another toolbox there that had my my dog
first aid kit that was all up on that shelf.
I'm surmising that because I didn't double check that that latch,
(37:17):
probably he could have been out all the way from
twin lake, just sitting on the bottom, you know, kind
of antsy, like, you know, why am why am I?
Speaker 3 (37:25):
Why am I? Why aren't they in a kennel?
Speaker 2 (37:28):
Yeah? Yeah, it's roaming around back there.
Speaker 4 (37:31):
He's roaming around the other two dogs below are probably like, hey,
how'd you get out?
Speaker 3 (37:34):
You know? You know?
Speaker 1 (37:37):
And the son of a bitch, how'd.
Speaker 3 (37:39):
You do that? Lets us out on a trip?
Speaker 4 (37:43):
And I'm surmising that when I changed lanes or got
back on the highway, that that cooler and that toolbox
fell onto the space where he was.
Speaker 3 (37:53):
Yeah, and he jumped back up onto that.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
Shelf, but the door wasn't open, and possibly he just
dogs will lean or sit or try to prop themselves
up on something to sit down. And I surmise that
he leaned on that screen and the screen gave out.
And that other picture again, I want people to know
I did this this morning, because I didn't do it
(38:19):
on the highway.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
Ye that is that is exactly how that screen looked.
Speaker 4 (38:23):
When I opened the tailgate and then looked at the screen,
and my heart felt down to my knees in my feet,
and all I could think about was this.
Speaker 3 (38:34):
You know, you can you picture it? You know the
worst thoughts of anything. Just you've seen roadkills, deer kills, dogs.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
Look like you know what, Ronnie? What Ronnie like in
this to me? He says his daughter. This whole thing,
he says, his daughter felt like, uh, you know what
a wonderful It's a wonderful life. When Jimmy Stewart's there
fixing to jump off that jump off the bridge.
Speaker 3 (39:04):
And they send Clarence and that Clarence heads.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Down there, Ronnie thinks it was Clarence.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
Clarence like creature guided his dog to the ground and
guided his dog to that woman's hands.
Speaker 4 (39:19):
Well, if you can explain how a dog doesn't get
road rash at seventy two miles an hour, I'll take
another explanation.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
You're open for suggestions.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
I'm wide open, Steve. I'm hoping that three people calling
and says, no, it happened to me too.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
It's all the time, and it's incredible.
Speaker 3 (39:47):
It so.
Speaker 4 (39:48):
And then there's two other scenarios that could have played out,
which would have been in this case, now that he's alive, that.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
Could have been worse.
Speaker 4 (39:57):
Because these are all dogs that are you to traveling.
I won't stop and let the dogs out or check
on him until I need to tank a gas. From Michigan,
I would get all the way to Madison, Wisconsin. I
do this route a lot, and somewhere around Madison, I
would have stopped, fueled up and taken all the dogs out,
(40:18):
and I would have opened that kennel.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
I would have opened that door, and I would have
had six hours.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
Yeah, of what the hell?
Speaker 3 (40:27):
What the hell?
Speaker 4 (40:28):
I don't even know if I could have drove back.
The other scenario is I could have looked in my
side view mirror to change lanes. I could have witnessed
him fallout, and I probably would have crashed. I mean,
what would you do if you saw your dog.
Speaker 3 (40:47):
Fall out of your car on a highway while you
were driving. I don't think you could.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
I'd think to myself, Man, my kids are gonna be
worked up about this.
Speaker 4 (40:56):
Yeah, well, and I thought about that too, about this
is the truth. I thought about how I'm not a
guy who posts. You know, I've looked out of all
those dogs I've had, and those are dogs that I've
kept for years at a time, not dogs that I've
had for a year and didn't work out, or or
gave to somebody who needed a dog, and I had
(41:16):
extra pupps dogs that I've had and hunted. I've never
put a post up on Facebook, and I don't say
anything to people do because they're good friends of mine
to do it. I never post anything about one of
my dogs dying. People find out it either through my
podcast or when I talked to him at peasant Fest,
you know, like, Hey, how's Bravo and I saw he
(41:37):
passed away last year. I I just that's that's just
something that's just part of me, and it's something you
sign up for when you when you get a dog,
and you that's your that's.
Speaker 3 (41:48):
Your thing, and that's how I handle it.
Speaker 4 (41:51):
So I fully when I was driving to that vet,
I had I had no intention on telling anybody about
this except up my friends on the hunting trip and
the people I know there that I got the dog from, actually,
and I would have probably told my listeners at.
Speaker 3 (42:09):
Some point or something. I don't know. I don't know
how I would have handled it.
Speaker 2 (42:13):
But Ronnie's referring to the Hunting Dog podcast, Yes.
Speaker 3 (42:19):
Which thanks to you well, we started on the same
day in January twenty fifteen. We did.
Speaker 4 (42:27):
We did that podcast at the kitchen table in Texas.
And when I said, you mean you can do this
in the kitchen, I went home.
Speaker 3 (42:36):
I went home and bought recording equipment.
Speaker 1 (42:39):
And heay, I just got you know what's funny, man,
I just got to I drew a crane tag here
and I just got my second crane yesterday morning. You
allowed two cranes when you draw a crain tag here.
Speaker 3 (42:48):
We still don't have it in Michigan, Steve, that's a.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
Great one of the great travesties. We'll get we'll get
it sorted out.
Speaker 3 (42:57):
So yeah, I started that just to to stories about
hunting trips and dogs and blah blah blah. And it's turning.
Speaker 4 (43:03):
I'm still doing it to this day. But I'll get
I'm gonna put this camera down. Oh is there a no,
that's the only two pictures that are important.
Speaker 2 (43:12):
Yeah, let's see.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
Let's see the dog. Yeah, let's see the dog, and
we'll say goodbye. We'll reissue a call for anyone that
can come in and find if you heard a story
where like you heard a story from someone that told
a story about watching a dog come out of a truck,
or someone thinks they hit and kill the dog and
then they come home and they're all sad about hitting
and killing the dog anything like that.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
Send them our way or send him around his way.
Speaker 3 (43:44):
Okay, can you see him.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
Dog Lazarus. It's the Lazarus dog. His other dogs are
pissed now.
Speaker 3 (44:07):
Yeah, they're all off. So his uh, his scar is
just above gone. He's starting to grow hair over his eyebrow.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
That's a good look at the dog man that.
Speaker 3 (44:19):
There is not a mark on his didn't break a nail,
didn't chip a tooth.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
He's huh and his person.
Speaker 4 (44:30):
And four days later, I, you know, I certainly wanted
to give him a break, and I fully expected, Honestly,
I just assumed there'd be some damage to his head
and if he would have, he was curled up in
front of my seat for you know, nineteen hours of
more driving. Let them out and I slept in a
(44:50):
couple of rest areas, but for a nap. I didn't
do the ice trick this time, Steve, but you're right,
that is a trick of mine.
Speaker 3 (44:59):
And I gave him a few days.
Speaker 4 (45:00):
But when I was at the vet and they gave
me a leash, I walked into my truck and he
jumped up into the front seat.
Speaker 3 (45:08):
Of my truck.
Speaker 2 (45:09):
He's done at the bag.
Speaker 3 (45:11):
Well, I didn't want to get PTSD. I mean, how
would you like to be put back in that kettle.
Speaker 1 (45:21):
Man?
Speaker 4 (45:21):
How you doing this twice? I've been down this road
and honestly, uh so during the week that's he he
went right back into that truck and right back in.
You know, I triple checked the latches and I'm actually
gonna install on the lower kennels. I'm going to install
some extra secondary hatch because this kennel has secondary latches.
(45:46):
And I want everybody who's saying under their breath, it's
your fault, Ronnie, they're one hundred percent right. I should
have double checked that door and hit the appropriate extra latch,
and I wouldn't be on this store the show today
with you.
Speaker 3 (46:01):
But it's gonna be one of the great all time
stories of a dog living.
Speaker 4 (46:05):
Through something that it's impossible, not a other than those
those cuts on or those abrasions on his forehead.
Speaker 3 (46:14):
I don't know, if you didn't know me, Steve, would
you believe this story?
Speaker 1 (46:20):
No, I would say if I didn't know you, I'd say,
I think the dog got out somewhere else, like at
the rest stop.
Speaker 4 (46:27):
Or I don't know what telling he said and something
look like that, and then the story was like no,
I saw it, And then somebody else told the story,
and some pretty soon the story is no, I saw
the dog jump out of a truck.
Speaker 1 (46:38):
No, I'll tell people Ronnie's Ronnie is quicker to tell
a story about himself looking bad. He's about himself look good.
Matter of fact, Ronnie don't tell stories where Ronnie looks good.
Ronnie only tells stories when Ronnie looks like an ass.
Speaker 3 (46:54):
You said that, Steve on the episode that we did
on the Mountain Grouse. You said, he's he's the most
self deprecating buddy.
Speaker 1 (47:05):
I know, yeah, and that narration, but yeah, he only
likes stories where he looks like an idiots.
Speaker 3 (47:13):
Well, they're funnier, it's funnier.
Speaker 1 (47:16):
Well listen, man, I'm glad the dog's live. I'm glad
you're live and happy, Steve.
Speaker 3 (47:22):
I want to do I want to in case I
missed anything. I want to thank Kristin Klausen.
Speaker 1 (47:26):
Yep, that's the dog Savior.
Speaker 3 (47:29):
That's the dog Savior.
Speaker 4 (47:30):
She volunteers with Animal Aid of Southwest Michigan, and the
clinic was two by two Animal clinic in barry In Springs, and.
Speaker 3 (47:40):
I don't know. Oh I guess, uh yeah, no kidding.
Speaker 4 (47:45):
One fact I forgot to tell you is when she
pulled up to the vet clinic, they were aware that
she was coming, and they rolled a gurney out to
her car. She opened the door and walked the dog
out onto the sidewalk. So I've been told to play
the lottery. I've been told to start going back to church.
I've been told to quit drinking, and I've been told
(48:08):
to quit smoking. I haven't done any of those things yet.
Speaker 2 (48:16):
But yeah, you're pretty good the way you are. Man.
We'll keep you the way you are, all right.
Speaker 3 (48:22):
So yeah, I ninety four June or September eighteenth, somewhere
around seven point fifteen in the morning, southbound YE ninety four,
about maybe thirteen fourteen miles north of the Indiana Line.
Speaker 1 (48:39):
Get a hold of us. You can go to the
meat Eater at the Metater podcast subject line Ronnie's Dog.
You can get a hold of Ronnie if you're on
YouTube going to the comment section say hey I saw
that dog.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
Get hit.
Speaker 1 (48:54):
Find Ronnie at the Hunting Dog podcast.
Speaker 2 (48:57):
Or on a highway near you. Thank you so much.
Ronnie love you
Speaker 3 (49:04):
Thank you, I love you too, Steve, thank you, Body,
Host
Steven Rinella
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