The white golden retriever mix with the green collar was first spotted in March, roaming a couple of miles past Plush, an unincorporated rural community about 40 miles northeast of Lakeview in Lake County.
More sightings followed in the subsequent months. The wandering dog, somehow surviving out in the remote, uninviting landscape, captured the imagination of residents in Lakeview.
People started trying to catch her — there is no animal-control services in the area. But the dog, afraid, would run away when approached.
How did the pooch endure? Nobody knew, until somebody posted pictures online of the dog “literally eating a dead cow on the side of the road to survive,” said Lakeview resident Rhonda Dial, who, on her own, runs a seat-of-the-pants animal-rescue operation out of her home.
Despite the green collar, no one claimed ownership of the dog after several local online postings. At one point, Dial said she and others considered trapping her, but it was risky, given how remote the area is.
“It was so far out there,” she said. If you trap an animal in the wilderness and you can’t immediately get there, “you can be the reason they die.”
Lakeview-area residents continued to see the big white dog here and there, Dial said. They worried about her.
“It’s pretty brutal,” she said of the area. “It’s hot. It’s dry. It’s a lot.”
On July 18, members of the local Order of the Antelope, an organization dedicated to wildlife conservation, was camping about 25 miles outside of Plush in the Hart Mountain wilderness when the dog approached.
Shortly after 7 a.m. the next day, Dial received a call from the organization. She took in the dog.
The golden retriever mix had survived for at least four months in the desert. She was still wearing the green collar, but it had no contact information.
Dial named her Grace. She said she tried out a few other names, but only Grace fit – she was a “true miracle.”
“She was so thin,” Dial recalls. “I was feeding her a little bit every two hours.”
After three days, she turned her over to Golden Bond Rescue, an all-volunteer rescue shelter, because she didn’t have the resources to properly care for her.
“I have rescued a lot of dogs,” she said. “She might be my all-time favorite.”
Golden Bond Rescue doesn’t have a facility and instead utilizes volunteer foster homes around Oregon and Washington. A volunteer in Redmond took Grace in on July 21. The dog then went to another foster home in Eugene for a few days. She’s now in Corvallis at the home of Kay Yates, Golden Bond’s medical director.
“She is a survivor,” Yates said. “Even when I got her, you could see her ribs and her back sticking out. Four months in the desert will wipe you out.”
Grace is now fully vaccinated, spayed and microchipped. The dog has gone from 61 pounds up to 72.8 pounds since being rescued. A veterinarian estimated Grace is about a year old.
Grace will be ready for adoption in a couple of days, Yates said.
“If you met Grace today you would have no idea what that dog went through,” Dial said. “She’s beautiful, she’s playing with other dogs and she’s hiking and swimming.”
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