Ep. 774: The Hunting Dog That Wouldn't Die

Steven Rinella https://www.instagram.com/stevenrinella/?hl=en talks with Ronnie Boehme https://www.instagram.com/thehuntingdogpodcast/?hl=en of The Hunting Dog Podcast https://thehuntingdogpodcast.com. Topics discussed: A wild, near-death story involving Ron's hunting dog, Tagus. Connect with Steve https://www.themeateater.com/authors/steven-rinella and The MeatEater Podcast Network https://www.youtube.com/@MeatEaterPodcastNetwork Steve on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/stevenrinella and Twitter https://twitter.com/stevenrinella?lang=en MeatEater on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/meateater, Facebook https://www.facebook.com/StevenRinellaMeatEater/, Twitter https://twitter.com/MeatEaterTV?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor, and YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@MeatEaterPodcastNetwork See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:34Steven Rinella?

  In military families, service is more than a job. It's a legacy. At American Military University, that legacy can help open new doors through education. If someone in your family served in the military, you could be eligible for reduced tuition. Take the next step with flexible online programs built for real life. Learn more at amu.apus.edu/military. I get sent all kinds of products and snacks, and the truth is, most of them come and go. Every once in a while, though, I find something I keep reaching for, and Wiley Wallaby is one of those things. I first tried it because someone just handed me a bag and said, this isn't like any other

• 1:18Steven Rinella?

  kind of licorice you've had before, and they were right. Wiley Wallaby makes authentic Australian-style licorice that's incredibly soft and chewy. It's not like that weird, tough, waxy, cheap junk you get, and it doesn't have that artificial taste that turns a lot of people away from licorice in the first place. It's one of those products that's hard to explain until you've tasted it yourself. I keep some in my truck, I keep some in my fish shack, I keep some in my camper. They've got more than 10 flavors, and whether you like classic flavors or something a little different, there's probably one you'll end up keeping stocked around the house. Plus, it's made in the USA by a company that's been committed to quality and hometown values for over six decades. If you haven't tried Wiley Wallaby yet, pick yourself up a bag.

• 2:03Steven Rinella?

  Use code MEATEATER at shop.wileywallaby.com for free shipping, and you can try it yourself. I think you will be pleasantly surprised. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, we have another emergency episode of the Meat Eater Podcast where something happens of such significance that you just have to go with it live now. Flop. The other day I got a text from my beloved friend Ronald F Bame. He says, is there a time, a day or two of the week that we could have a conversation? I have a story.

• 2:38Steven Rinella?

  When I tell you the story, you will not believe it, but it's gonna take some time. I'm intrigued. He replies, I say, I'm intrigued. He replies, I would put it on a scale of Jesus was buried and rose again three days later.

• 2:58Steven Rinella?

  Well, that and that story's got a lot of press.

• 3:04Speaker 02

  Yeah, but that's an old story and I don't know any witnesses. I don't know any witnesses to that story.

• 3:10Steven Rinella?

  This one, well, this one, there's a witness that we, 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 of tremendous interest, possibly two or three people of tremendous interest if we can find them.

• 3:41Speaker 02

  Yeah, we're looking for one more puzzle piece.

• 3:44Steven Rinella?

  But first, oh, go ahead. No, you're good.

• 3:47Speaker 02

  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.

• 4:00Steven Rinella?

  Yep. And they're out there. We're gonna find them.

• 4:03Speaker 02

  Yeah, we're hoping, we're hoping.

• 4:04Steven Rinella?

  Uh, but first, Meat Eater Live, the Christmas tour headed to the south.

• 4:11Steven Rinella?

  Okay, we got here one sec. Fayetteville, Arkansas is sold out. So scratch that. But we got December 17th, Birmingham, Alabama at the Lyric. December 18th, Nashville, Tennessee at Marathon Music Works. December 19th, Memphis, Tennessee at Minglewood Hall. The 20th is Fayetteville, but it's too late. 21st, Dallas, Texas, Texas Theater. December 22nd, Austin, Texas at Paramount. Me, uh, the Lavian Lover.

• 4:42Steven Rinella?

  Clay Newcomb, Brent Reeves, Dr. Randall, all headed out hitting the road. Lot of laughs, giveaway, a lot of prizes.

• 4:50Steven Rinella?

  Music, very entertaining night. So get your girlfriend what she actually wants. Here's some stupid slippers.

• 5:01Steven Rinella?

  Get her tickets to the Christmas tour.

• 5:04Steven Rinella?

  Uh, another thing, it's been out for a while, but I, I haven't mentioned this yet. We got a new Meat Eater store in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Stop in there.

• 5:14Steven Rinella?

  It's open right now. We had the opening. 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, uh, we got another six pack of Meat Eater episodes.

• 5:33Steven Rinella?

  Season 13 coming out in a few weeks on October 20th. With no further ado.

• 5:40Steven Rinella?

  My special friend, Ronnie Bame is going to tell us a dog story.

• 5:47Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 5:48Steven Rinella?

  And Ron, 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 I knew who got serious about dogs. I mean, like really serious that would 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.

• 6:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. Most people could only do one dog and, uh, I, I kind of jumped with both feet into it and, um, started, you know, I got involved with a versatile dog club. I apprenticed and became a judge and a senior judge for, for, uh, versatile hunting dogs. But, you know, the first couple of dogs I had that you knew, I, I know why you got turned off by dogs. I've heard you talk about it before. And my, my.

• 6:41Steven Rinella?

  No, cause I had the world, we had, I grew up with the world's greatest dog, but go on.

• 6:44Speaker 02

  Yeah, you had, uh, Duchess or whatever her name was. Yeah.

• 6:48Steven Rinella?

  Rip.

• 6:48Speaker 02

  And I didn't, I had, anyway. Along the, along the line, um.

• 6:55Speaker 02

  If you own enough dogs, and I think I I got 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 go one by one. Um, and I raised several litters of dogs. But anyway, years back in two thousand and four. Um, yeah, two thousand and four. On 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. I always traveled with at least a couple of dogs. And I had two of them out in the in 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.

• 7:40Speaker 02

  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 to be a full-size delivery van. And both of my dogs were still over this berm. And I made the grave mistake, maybe it was the grave mistake, of whistling for them, thinking I'd get them in, you know, I'd get them rounded up before this vehicle came toward me. And low and behold, uh, Zygen um, came right up across that road in front of my eyes and got smacked by a a full-size, uh, it was a Ford delivery van. And I estimated it to be maybe about thirty, forty, maybe forty-five miles an hour. And

• 8:27Speaker 02

  I watched this happen. I watched this dog get broadsided, rolled underneath the truck. He was laying on his back, uh, urinating on the ground, bleeding out of his mouth. And had I, had I had a pistol or something to euthanize him with.

• 8:45Speaker 02

  I wouldn't because of what I saw and what I saw on the ground, it was, it was not going to be able to make it. Anyway, called one of the guys that worked for me. He came and helped me put him in the truck. Uh, he was about a 75 pound dog and went to an all night vet. That was in, not far away in the town. They kept the dog till six o'clock in the morning. He was still miraculously alive. Uh, cracked ribs on one side of his body, blood in his, blood around his heart, lungs, liver, spleen. Not good. Uh, fortunately not broken legs, all broken ribs. And he ended up going to a place, a critical care place in Richmond, Virginia.

• 9:29Speaker 02

  He spent seven days there and I got him back and two months later, maybe two and a half months later, I actually ran him in a, a high level test. Uh, we didn't pass, but it wasn't because of his physical. Um, problems. It was just because we had a couple of little fupas in the test. Later on, and you, you dedicated this, in fact, anytime I've watched the episode that you and I did on Sage grouse. I was at a state park in Indiana, maybe 10 years later. And opened the dog, the, opened the kennels on my three dog kennel. And two of my dogs were stone cold dead.

• 10:09Speaker 02

  Turned out they got into some kind of a poison or a, a, not antifreeze, 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 it long enough, 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 have to be fed. I can't, I can't stop and, and go, but, so I've had a pretty good stretch now without anything happening until. Thursday, the 18th of this month, I took off for, uh, North Dakota. And I had four dogs in my truck. I had a small kennel in the backseat of my truck for my cocker spaniel.

• 10:52Speaker 02

  I have built in, uh, stainless steel and 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. So.

• 11:13Speaker 02

  I'm dry, I get above, I get out of the house about 5:30 in the morning. Uh, it's dark out. I'm heading down south. I gotta get through Indiana and Chicago and work my way up uh, toward I-94.

• 11:25Steven Rinella?

  Yeah, Ronnie's leaving west Michigan, Meskeen County, Twin Town, Michigan.

• 11:29Speaker 02

  Right.

• 11:31Steven Rinella?

  Heading south down around the bottom end of Lake Michigan and then you're gonna head west from there.

• 11:36Speaker 02

  Right, exactly. And, and I can say that what happened next is my fault because when I was loading everything up, probably about 4:00, 4:30 in the morning, making a final check with everything. This particular dog, he, he kennels, like if I point at something, he kennels. It, it could be a cardboard box, he'll jump in it. And uh, his name is Tagus. He's a, a wire, a wire haired vigilante. And uh, I opened that kennel door and he jumped up in there and I closed the door. The door appeared to be closed, but I didn't pull on it. It even has additional safety latches, but

• 12:18Speaker 02

  this is an enclosed camper, like a cap.

• 12:22Steven Rinella?

  Yeah, you got like, yeah, you got a dog box in a topper.

• 12:26Speaker 02

  Yes, in a topper, for, for lack of a better, that's a perfect description. So, again, I, I didn't check, the door looked like it was closed. It, 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. Now, the

• 12:50Steven Rinella?

  Ronnie, can I, can I throw something, can I throw something in here? Cause it's reminding me of a, Ronnie is one of the, America's great long distance drivers.

• 13:00Steven Rinella?

  Among the, among the best.

• 13:02Speaker 02

  Well.

• 13:03Steven Rinella?

  Among the best, long distance drivers. Ronnie used to go, I don't know if you still use this strategy. I mean, among the best longest, I mean, bad driver. He's not a great driver. But in terms of like, long haul.

• 13:21Steven Rinella?

  Let's just drive to Florida right now and not stop, kind of like driving, like among America's best.

• 13:29Speaker 02

  Yeah, for not being a, for not having a CDL license and driving a semi, I'd agree with.

• 13:33Steven Rinella?

  Among the best. So serious about it. He'll pull into a gas station and get a cup of ice.

• 13:43Steven Rinella?

  And then sit there and just drop those ice cubes down the back of his shirt.

• 13:49Steven Rinella?

  That motivated.

• 13:53Steven Rinella?

  Just slip one, slip one down the back of his shirt, kind of, and then just that motivated, like he ain't stopping.

• 14:04Speaker 02

  Well, that's, that's true. I, I drove most of the way back from the Arctic Circle to Fairbanks with you.

• 14:13Steven Rinella?

  I probably slept against the window.

• 14:16Speaker 02

  Well, part of it, the other part of the time, he argued about the NSA listening to phone calls.

• 14:24Steven Rinella?

  Okay, so go on, sorry. You stopped, got a coffee. I just had to throw that in there because I was wondering if you got a bucket of ice too.

• 14:30Speaker 02

  Yeah, this is an 1100 mile trip I'm on and I'm not, I'm not planning on stopping. So I'm fueled up, I'm coffied up, my phone rings. It was about 7:30. I looked it up in the call log. It was 7:36. And the person who caretakes my house in Virginia is a fellow named Bill, Bill Walters. And I was down there just the week before weekend before 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, I pick up the phone and I said, yeah, Bill, or I pick up, I answered it on my dashboard.

• 15:13Speaker 02

  And I said, yeah, Bill, what's up? 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 a story. I said, what's up? He said, she said, sir.

• 15:29Speaker 02

  I'm sorry to tell you this, but your dog was hit by a car on I-94 in Virginia.

• 15:36Speaker 02

  And I'm taking the dog, I have the dog in my car.

• 15:39Steven Rinella?

  Oh, back up. She didn't say that.

• 15:43Steven Rinella?

  You said I-94 in Virginia.

• 15:45Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, I'm sorry. Yes, you're right. Um, she said, your dog was hit, your dog was hit on I-94 in Michigan. That's what she, and this is Bill telling me what she told him.

• 15:55Steven Rinella?

  Bill's in Virginia.

• 15:57Speaker 02

  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, I, so I don't know what to tell you. And she says, well, it has your phone number. I've got it right here.

• 16:19Speaker 02

  It has your phone number on a military type dog tag, but no name. I don't know if you can see that.

• 16:24Steven Rinella?

  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 dial, don't dial that.

• 16:36Speaker 03

  Don't show your phone number to the audience, Ron.

• 16:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, Bill's kidding.

• 16:39Steven Rinella?

  You're gonna get Ronnie's buddy, he doesn't want to hear from you.

• 16:43Speaker 02

  He doesn't want to hear from me. So. He said, well, ma'am, I, I don't know what to tell you. And then she said.

• 16:52Speaker 02

  It's an orange Carhartt collar. This is what she's, this is what he's translating to me.

• 16:58Steven Rinella?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 16:59Speaker 02

  All the time, I'm saying, Bill, well, that's impossible. It's just one of those tags you 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. And it hit me like a ton of bricks. I needed a different collar. 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, I started like hyperventilating and I, or not breathing. And from 72, I keep my, my speedometer at 72 on cruise control. I pulled over. Like as quick as I could without locking up the brakes. Even got into the grass a little bit on the shoulder of the road.

• 17:44Speaker 02

  And I, I, I'm, 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.

• 17:57Speaker 02

  And there I see the dog kennel door open and the window, the screen on this sliding window halfway hanging out of the, the, the vehicle. And I just lose it. I, I, I, 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 in the truck. And I called Bill back and I was, I know I was crying. And I said, Bill, it's Tagus, it's Tagus. It's who, who's, who, who's this lady? And he says, I've got the number. I gave her your number and I'll, I'll send you her number.

• 18:42Speaker 02

  And I'm about, at this point, I'm about two miles from the Indiana line. And I gotta 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-94 that we come from our house in Twin Lake, you're only on 94 for about 35, 36 miles or 40 miles now. So all I know was this on 994. And I, I immediately start calling this woman's number and it goes right to voicemail, right to voicemail. And I call again and I'm, I'm yelling at my dashboard for this lady to answer. I don't know her name even yet.

• 19:25Speaker 02

  And I'm, I, 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. And finally she calls me up and, and I said, oh, thank God. I, I said, and I said, my name is Ron. She says, my name is Kristen. And she said, yeah, your, your dog was hit on I-94 and I have it in my truck and I'm bringing it to my veterinarian in Marion Springs, Michigan. And I'm, I'm, right now I'm in a parking lot right off the side of the, of the highway at a gas station. And I, I, I'm shaken and I finally said, I said,

• 20:09Speaker 02

  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 I-94 this morning. And I saw 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, 94 is three lanes wide. And Steve, you've ever seen a box floating around on a road? You're afraid something's in there, or it's gonna get stuck under your car? You know, when you see a, you've seen that. Oh, yeah. So she, I, I don't know if she slowed down, or she just noticed it. But she noticed it going in front of a semi truck.

• 20:53Speaker 02

  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, the brand, but she, it was, it was, she said, an SUV was in the right lane, the slow lane, as, as was she.

• 21:13Speaker 02

  And she saw this brown object get missed by the truck.

• 21:20Speaker 02

  And then with the SUV, what she saw was darkness underneath between, it was daylight out now. The, where you could normally look through someone's, you know, vehicle. Yep. Well, like, something underneath there. And then what she saw was taggers shoot out between the wheels of the, the rear of the vehicle. And this is at full highway speed.

• 21:48Speaker 02

  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. And then she thought it was a deer, because he's like that red brown color.

• 22:02Speaker 02

  And then it stood up. She said, it stood up.

• 22:07Speaker 02

  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, 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, she said she left the door open, and she started calling

• 22:49Speaker 02

  the dog, 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, I told you this would take forever to tell you, Steve. No, you're doing good. Um, because part of me can't still, I go back into this craziness of this. She, she does volunteer, her name is Kristen 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

• 23:31Speaker 02

  been in the car with her, and she'll see a stray dog or a loose dog with no owner, she keeps leashes and collars in her backseat, where if she sees a dog, and her friends have told her, Kristen, you are going to get hurt or killed doing this. You've gotta, you've gotta just call the, 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 veterinarian clinic in Marion Springs called Two by Two Animal Hospital. Well, it's not open yet, and she calls the after-hours emergency number. They know her

• 24:16Speaker 02

  because she, 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 there waiting for. And

• 24:34Speaker 02

  So when she calls me and tells me this, she is, I, now 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, and now I've got about a 15 mile drive to Marion Springs and I'm 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 I'm gonna have to, if the dog isn't already dead, that I'm gonna have to, you know, tell the veterinarian to euthanize it. And I know this sounds really bizarre, but maybe dog owners and dog lovers and hunters would understand.

• 25:17Speaker 02

  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.

• 25:29Steven Rinella?

  Like bury him back where he came from?

• 25:31Speaker 02

  Bury him back where he came from, on the prairie. And, and, uh, so I'm in traffic and I'm trying to get there and it's a 15 minute drive.

• 25:41Speaker 02

  Now, I get there

• 25:45Speaker 02

  and there's a woman on the phone at the reception desk and I want to grab the-

• 25:48Steven Rinella?

  Hold up real quick. This all is happening so fast that when you get the call

• 25:55Steven Rinella?

  from Bill.

• 25:56Speaker 02

  Right.

• 25:58Steven Rinella?

  You're how many miles from where she, like, this happened so fast. You're only 10 miles down the highway.

• 26:04Speaker 02

  Right. She said this happened just north of Sawyer, Michigan. And Sawyer, Michigan is exit 12.

• 26:12Steven Rinella?

  Yep.

• 26:12Speaker 02

  So the exit she got off at to turn around was exit 12. So this happened somewhere, you know, north of, you know, 13 miles north of the Indian Island, 14 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, got that done, and then called Bill in the space of about 10 minutes.

• 26:37Steven Rinella?

  Yep.

• 26:38Speaker 02

  So when I'm on my way to the vet already, she's, the, the dog already is at the vet. And, um,

• 26:48Speaker 02

  I want to save this part for later. 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, and I 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, can I 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 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.

• 27:24Speaker 02

  And that I sit down and I'm like, that doesn't make any sense. I mean, what do you mean you're going to bring the dog to me on a, on a gurney? Or, you know, in a body?

• 27:34Speaker 02

  Steve, as God is my witness, she walked that dog in on a leash and the dog's tail was wagging.

• 27:43Speaker 04

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• 28:14Steven Rinella?

  In military families, service is more than a job. It's a legacy. At American Military University, that legacy can help open new doors through education. If someone in your family served in the military, you could be eligible for reduced tuition. Take the next step with flexible online programs built for real life. Learn more at amu.apus.edu/military. If you spend a lot of time outdoors, you got dogs, you got kids, you know how hard it is to keep the floor of your rig clean. A thing we do in our, in our little fleet of vehicles that have at my household, if you go look, open the door on any one of them, they all got weather tech.

• 28:57Steven Rinella?

  We get a car, we throw the mats out and put in WeatherTech. That way, when there's a mess, it's like your kid's fault, your dog's fault, it's the weather's fault, doesn't matter. You take them suckers out and hose them off and you're back to being good as new. I'm telling you, if you got a vehicle, put WeatherTech in there, you're gonna be happy you did it. And check this out, American-made floor liners and cargo liners, okay? They laugh in the face of all weather. Go take a look for yourself today at weather tech.com.

• 29:24Speaker 02

  I sent you pictures. I don't know, is Phil gonna be able to?

• 29:27Steven Rinella?

  Yeah, no, Phil's here.

• 29:28Speaker 03

  Yeah, I was gonna add them in post, Ron, but if you give me 10 seconds, I can pull them up right now. Just give me, give me a sec here.

• 29:33Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 29:33Steven Rinella?

  He'll have them popped up in a minute. Then he can extra add them. If you're in post, if you're post-post, how am I trying to explain this, Phil? No, not that picture, Phil.

• 29:43Speaker 03

  I know, I'm moving it.

• 29:45Steven Rinella?

  There it is.

• 29:47Speaker 02

  Okay, that is what my dog looked like when I walked into the vet and he came up to me. And I, you know, it's, it's not even a cut. It's actually like an abrasion across his middle of his brow.

• 30:06Steven Rinella?

  Yeah.

• 30:06Speaker 02

  Above his eye and on the left side of his eye. And

• 30:10Steven Rinella?

  Yeah, it looks like if you took a, a iron.

• 30:13Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 30:14Steven Rinella?

  Like a branding iron and laid it across his forehead.

• 30:16Speaker 02

  Yep, yep. And I can't picture what did that. I can't picture what did that. 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 wagging, he's right between, I'm sitting down, he's right between my legs. And I, I asked the vet tech, I said, how? And she says, I have no idea. I said, but it, it, it got out of my truck on the interstate. And she said, I know. But I said, well, how can this be? And she says, we don't know. We, we don't know. And this, this part is almost comical.

• 30:59Speaker 02

  She said, we gave him a full exam. And if anybody's ever had their dog at an exam, when there's a limp or a problem or, or they've been hit 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, petting him. And she said, the only thing we found that we'd like to address right now is he has an ear infection.

• 31:39Speaker 02

  I looked at her, I said, isn't that the least of my problems? She said, she said, from what we can tell, that's his only problem.

• 31:49Speaker 02

  And, and I, I'm just, I, I, I, 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, shoot, I'm two hours late for getting on the road when I wanted to. Cause it, this can't happen, Steve.

• 32:08Steven Rinella?

  No, to spill out of a moving truck at 72 miles an hour on a highway. Get rolled under another truck and no, and you got, all you got is a ear infection.

• 32:20Speaker 02

  An ear infection and a, and a curling iron burn.

• 32:26Speaker 02

  It's, it's, it's not, I have been through this a hundred times. Uh, maybe, I mean, you're good at thinking about things. The only thing, you ever have a semi go by you so close it almost moves your vehicle?

• 32:41Steven Rinella?

  Oh yeah, dude, that's why I can't, I don't understand those people that like to ride, that like to do those bike rides down the, along the busy roads.

• 32:48Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 32:50Steven Rinella?

  And every truck just rocks their world, man, like with that wind gust. Oh yeah. Hate that feeling.

• 32:56Speaker 02

  So I have to assume that I was in front of the semi. I'm, or, or somewhere, obviously I was in front of the semi, but I don't know how far, whether it was a mile or.

• 33:07Steven Rinella?

  Yep.

• 33:08Speaker 02

  I don't know.

• 33:09Steven Rinella?

  Well, not a mile, well, I don't know. That's why we need to find.

• 33:13Speaker 02

  Right.

• 33:14Steven Rinella?

  Someone in America was dri, they're like, someone in America's been telling their friends. You'll never guess what? I watched a dog come flying out of a truck. And they, well, they think the dog's dead.

• 33:27Speaker 02

  Right, right. And I even yesterday, I called the non emergency number for that county. And I gave her the, the time and date and she got, she got back with me in about 10 minutes. And she had no 911 call. So nobody, nobody called.

• 33:43Steven Rinella?

  Reported that dog coming out of the window. But yeah, you think like just for, I mean, I'm going to state the real obvious for people. If you fall from a 72 mile an hour pickup, when you hit the ground, you're going 72 miles an hour.

• 33:57Speaker 02

  Exactly. Yeah, just time doesn't stop.

• 33:59Steven Rinella?

  It like denudes, it like denudes flesh. Is that a word? I mean, it's a word, but does that apply?

• 34:06Speaker 02

  I, I don't know, but I know what you're trying to say.

• 34:10Steven Rinella?

  Removes it.

• 34:11Speaker 02

  It would. And so I'm still in the vet and I'm, 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. Um, but the name of the vet clinic is two by two is a reference in the, on their logo is an arc. And she just kind of, she says, I can't tell you. And I'm like, this, this is, I, I mean, it's a, it's a miracle. He, I'll get him out in a minute. And I'll move my camera down to a chair.

• 34:52Speaker 02

  Um, but all these other things are in my head and I'm probably messing this up because I'm kind of like reliving it. So the vet says, I'd like to take some more x-rays. And x-rays can also see if there's blood around organs and I don't know, I think the x-ray is head first. Because I got charged for two x-rays. Um, the first view and an additional view, I've got the, the report here from two by two. Um, so I said, yes, please do it. And then she comes back and she says, no broken ribs, nothing in the, nothing in the legs. So I was, I'm assuming the first was a head x-ray because of the, the head damage.

• 35:34Steven Rinella?

  Yeah.

• 35:37Speaker 02

  No fracture in the skull, 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, it, it obscures the x-ray.

• 35:57Steven Rinella?

  Yeah.

• 35:58Speaker 02

  They can tell when there's fluid inside of a dog's body.

• 36:01Steven Rinella?

  Yeah.

• 36:02Speaker 02

  There's nothing inside this dog's body, Steve. And so I, I'm sitting there with them and they give me, they give me, they give me the ear drops and they give me the instructions for the ear drops. And they give me, uh, they give me carprofen for pain. And they give me trazodone for anxiety in case he gets anxious or starts walking around or gets confused. That's, that's kind of like a, a, not a painkiller, uh, something to calm a dog down.

• 36:36Steven Rinella?

  Yeah.

• 36:37Speaker 02

  Like a down.

• 36:37Steven Rinella?

  I understand.

• 36:39Speaker 02

  And I never ended up giving him any trazodone. I did give him by prescription the carprofen. Uh, I gave him that for, uh, half a pill once, twice a day. I did that for about three days for pain because my, the other analogy, she, she said, well, I know he appears 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 you got hit by a truck.

• 37:09Steven Rinella?

  Yeah.

• 37:11Speaker 02

  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, God, somebody, somebody did it. But my, my mechanical thought was this dog got caught up in the suction of the semi truck.

• 37:43Speaker 02

  And maybe flattened out and spun. And could a vehicle straddle a dog without hitting it? I, I guess if the dog was flat on its side.

• 37:55Steven Rinella?

  It had to be flat because your dog's 65 pounds, man. Some bitch is way higher than the wheel hub.

• 37:59Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah. It would have to be flat with his.

• 38:03Steven Rinella?

  Sorry, way higher than the transfer cases and all that stuff. Yeah.

• 38:05Speaker 02

  Exactly. The rear end differential or a shock mount or the muffler, you know.

• 38:13Speaker 02

  Any of these things would have sliced him open or killed him. And. I'll show them to you in a little bit. 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-94. It was June 18th, a Thursday. Southbound on I-94. Roughly, I'm going to say anywhere from 7:15 to 7:30 in the morning.

• 38:52Speaker 02

  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. I don't know.

• 39:01Steven Rinella?

  Yeah. Hey, Ronnie, jump. Phil's gonna pull up those pictures. Jump to like.

• 39:05Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 39:06Steven Rinella?

  Jump to it real quick. Jump to how, like, how the dog could have gotten out, right? Because he's in a topper, in a dog box.

• 39:15Speaker 02

  Okay, if Phil can go to the picture on the inside.

• 39:18Steven Rinella?

  We got the exterior right now.

• 39:20Speaker 02

  Right.

• 39:22Steven Rinella?

  I, there it is.

• 39:23Speaker 02

  That's the inside of the truck. Tailgate is up. The hatch is up right now. That, that dog kennel is.

• 39:29Steven Rinella?

  I don't, I don't think it's Ronnie's truck because there'd be empty shell casings and empty beer cans everywhere.

• 39:35Speaker 02

  They're, they're, they're not in the picture, Steve. Trust me. Trust me.

• 39:41Steven Rinella?

  Mixed ga, mixed gauges.

• 39:45Speaker 02

  You're right.

• 39:46Steven Rinella?

  Many brands, many gauges and brands, but just one kind of beer can.

• 39:52Speaker 02

  So that is a fact. Steve's traveled with me. I put them all in the door pockets of the truck and it drives him crazy.

• 40:01Speaker 02

  But I reenacted this this morning to, because I didn't take a picture when it happened. This is how the kennels mounted up there permanently.

• 40:09Steven Rinella?

  Yep. So he got out of there and started roaming around the truck.

• 40:14Speaker 02

  And on 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. That shelf is 13 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.

• 40:39Steven Rinella?

  Yep.

• 40:40Speaker 02

  And so that, that glass window was open by design. The screen was in place, but it's just a little pop in screen.

• 40:51Speaker 02

  When I opened the tailgate, when I pulled over quick.

• 40:55Speaker 02

  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. 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, why am I, why aren't they in a kennel?

• 41:21Steven Rinella?

  Yeah, yeah. Just roaming around back there.

• 41:25Speaker 02

  He's roaming around. The other two dogs below are probably like, hey, how'd you get out?

• 41:30Speaker 02

  You know, and

• 41:31Steven Rinella?

  You son of a bitch.

• 41:33Speaker 02

  How'd you do that? He never lets us out on a trip. And I'm surmising that when I changed lanes or got back on the highway. That that cooler in that toolbox fell onto the space where he was.

• 41:47Steven Rinella?

  Yeah.

• 41:48Speaker 02

  And he jumped back up onto that 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, I want people to know I, I did this this morning because I didn't do it on the highway.

• 42:14Steven Rinella?

  Yeah.

• 42:14Speaker 02

  That is, that is exactly how that screen looked when I opened the tailgate and then looked at the screen. And my heart felt down to my, my knees and my feet. And all I could think about was this, you know, you can, you picture it, you know, um, uh, the, the worst thoughts of anything, just you've seen road kills, deer kills, dogs, cats, coyotes. Look like.

• 42:38Steven Rinella?

  You know what Ronnie, uh, what Ronnie likened this to me? He says his daughter. This whole thing. He says his daughter felt like, uh,

• 42:49Steven Rinella?

  you know, in a wonderful, it's a wonderful life. When Jimmy Stewart's, uh, there fixing to jump off that, uh, jump off the bridge.

• 42:57Speaker 02

  And, and they send Clarence down.

• 42:59Steven Rinella?

  Yeah. And that, and that Clarence heads down there.

• 43:03Steven Rinella?

  Ronnie thinks it was Clarence. A Clarence like creature. Guided his dog to the ground and, and guided his dog to that woman's hands.

• 43:13Speaker 02

  Well, if you could explain how a dog doesn't get road rash at 72 miles an hour. I'll take another explanation.

• 43:21Steven Rinella?

  You're, you're open for suggestions.

• 43:25Speaker 02

  I'm, I'm wide open, Steve. I, I'm hoping that three people calling and says, no, it happened to me too. But.

• 43:35Steven Rinella?

  It's all the time.

• 43:37Speaker 02

  It's all the time. And.

• 43:39Steven Rinella?

  It's incredible.

• 43:40Speaker 02

  It, so, 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 could have been worse because I, these are all dogs that are used to traveling. I won't stop and let the dogs out or check on them until I need a tank of gas. My, 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 and I would have opened that kennel, I would have opened that door.

• 44:17Speaker 02

  And I would have had six hours of

• 44:19Steven Rinella?

  Yeah.

• 44:20Speaker 02

  Of what the hell, what the hell. 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 fall out.

• 44:35Speaker 02

  And I probably would have crashed. I mean, what would you do if you saw your dog fall out of your car on a highway while you were driving? I don't think you could.

• 44:44Steven Rinella?

  I'd think to myself, man, my kids are gonna be worked up about this.

• 44:49Speaker 02

  Yeah, well, and I thought about that, too. I thought about, this is the truth. I thought about how, I, I'm not a guy who posts. You know, I've lost, 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 extra pups. Dogs that I've had and hunted. I've never put a post up on Facebook, and, and I don't say anything to people who 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 talk to them at Pheasant Fest, you know, like, hey, how's Bravo? And I saw he passed away last year. I, I just, that's

• 45:34Speaker 02

  that's just some, that's just part of me, and it's something you sign up for when you, when you get a dog and you that, that's your, that's your thing, and that's how I handle it. So I fully, when I was driving to that vet. I had, I had no intention on telling anybody about this except 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 some point or something. I don't know, I don't know how I would have handled it, but.

• 46:07Steven Rinella?

  Yeah, Ronnie's, uh, Ronnie's referring to the Hunting Dog Podcast.

• 46:11Speaker 02

  Yes, um, which thanks to you, I, we started on the same day in January 2015.

• 46:19Steven Rinella?

  Hmm, well.

• 46:21Speaker 02

  We did. 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. I went home and bought recording equipment.

• 46:33Steven Rinella?

  Hey, I just got, you know, it's funny, man. I just got to, I drew a crane tag here and I just got my second crane yesterday morning. You're allowed two cranes when you draw a crane tag here.

• 46:42Speaker 02

  We still don't have it in Michigan, Steve.

• 46:44Steven Rinella?

  Ah, that's, that's a great, one of the great travesties. We'll get it, we'll get it sorted out.

• 46:50Speaker 02

  Um, so yeah, I, I started that just to tell stories about hunting trips and dogs and blah, blah, blah. And it's turned and I'm still doing it to this day. Um, but I'll get, I'm going to put this camera down. Oh, is there a, no, that's the only two pictures that are important to.

• 47:05Steven Rinella?

  Yeah, let's see, let's see the dog. Yeah, let's see the dog. Then we'll, we'll, we'll say goodbye. We'll reissue a call for anyone that can come in and find if, 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 killed a dog and they come home and they're all sad about hitting and killing the dog. Anything like that, uh, send them our way.

• 47:34Steven Rinella?

  Or send them Rodney's way.

• 47:38Speaker 02

  Tag up, no, come here. Can you see him?

• 47:43Speaker 02

  That's daggers, daggers, come here.

• 47:46Speaker 02

  Daggers, come here.

• 47:55Steven Rinella?

  Lazarus, it's a Lazarus dog.

• 47:59Steven Rinella?

  Those other dogs are pissed now.

• 48:01Speaker 02

  Yeah, they're all out. So his, uh, his scar is just about gone. He's starting to grow hair over his eyebrow.

• 48:10Steven Rinella?

  That's a good looking dog, man.

• 48:12Speaker 02

  But there is not a mark on his, didn't break a nail, didn't chip a tooth. He's.

• 48:21Speaker 02

  And his person, and four days later, I, you know, I certainly wanted to give him a break and I, I fully expected, honestly, I just assumed there'd be some damage to his head and

• 48:34Steven Rinella?

  Yup, yup.

• 48:35Speaker 02

  If he would have, he was curled up in front of my seat for, you know, 19 hours of more driving, letting him out and I slept in a couple of rest areas, but for a nap, I, I didn't do the ice trick this time, Steve, but you're right. I, I, that is a trick of mine. Um, and I gave him a few days, 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 of my truck.

• 49:03Steven Rinella?

  He's done with the bag.

• 49:05Speaker 02

  Well, I, I didn't want him to get PTSD.

• 49:10Speaker 02

  I mean, could, how would you like to be put back in that kennel?

• 49:13Steven Rinella?

  Oh dude, yeah, I've been skeptical, man.

• 49:15Speaker 02

  I ain't doing this twice. I, I've been down this road and honestly, uh, so

• 49:24Speaker 02

  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 going to install on the lower kennels, I'm going to install, um, some extra secondary hatch, because this kennel has secondary latches. And I want everybody who's saying under their breath, it's your fault, Ronnie, they're a hundred percent right. I should have double checked that door and hit the appropriate extra latch and I wouldn't be on this store, this show today with you. Um, but it's going to be one of the great all time stories of, uh, of a dog living through something that it's impossible. Not a, other than those, those cuts on, or those abrasions on his forehead. I don't know.

• 50:10Speaker 02

  If, if you didn't know me, Steve, would you believe this story?

• 50:14Steven Rinella?

  No, I would, if I didn't know you, I'd say, I think the dog got out, uh, somewhere else, like at the rest stop, or I don't know what the hell it was said.

• 50:22Speaker 02

  And, and something looked like that. And then the story was like, no, I saw it. And then somebody else told the story and then some, pretty soon the story is, no, I saw the dog jump out of a truck.

• 50:32Steven Rinella?

  No, I'll tell people, Ronnie's, Ronnie is quicker to tell a story about himself looking bad. Didn't he about himself look good? Matter of fact, Ronnie don't tell stories where Ronnie looks good. Ronnie only tells stories where Ronnie looks like a ass.

• 50:48Speaker 02

  I, you said that, you said that Steve on the episode that we did on the mountain grouse, you said he's self, he's the most self-deprecating buddy I know.

• 51:00Steven Rinella?

  Yeah.

• 51:01Speaker 02

  And I remember that narration, but.

• 51:02Steven Rinella?

  Yeah, he only likes stories where he looks like an idiot.

• 51:07Speaker 02

  Well, they're funnier. They're funnier.

• 51:10Steven Rinella?

  Well, listen, man, I'm glad the dog's alive. I'm glad you're live and happy.

• 51:16Speaker 02

  Steve, I want to do, I want to, in case I missed anything, I want to thank Kristen Clausen.

• 51:20Steven Rinella?

  Yep, that's the dog savior.

• 51:22Speaker 02

  That's the dog savior. She volunteers with Animal Aid of Southwest Michigan.

• 51:27Steven Rinella?

  Okay.

• 51:29Speaker 02

  And the clinic was two by two animal clinic in Marion Springs and I don't know, oh.

• 51:36Steven Rinella?

  That's a great name.

• 51:36Speaker 02

  I guess, uh, yeah, no kidding. 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.

• 51:48Steven Rinella?

  Hmm.

• 51:48Speaker 02

  She opened the door and walked the dog out onto the sidewalk.

• 51:54Speaker 02

  So I, 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 to quit smoking.

• 52:07Speaker 02

  I haven't done any of those things yet, but, um.

• 52:11Steven Rinella?

  Yeah, you're pretty good the way you are, man. We'll keep you the way you are. Uh, all right.

• 52:16Speaker 02

  So, yeah, I 94, June or September 18th, somewhere around 7:15 in the morning, southbound I 94, uh, about maybe 13, 14 miles north of the Indiana line.

• 52:33Steven Rinella?

  Get ahold of us. You can go to the meat eater at the meat eater podcast, um, subject line, Ronnie's dog. You can get ahold of Ronnie. Uh, if you're on YouTube, go into the comment section and say, hey, I saw that dog get hit. Um, find Ronnie at the hunting dog podcast.

• 52:51Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 52:51Steven Rinella?

  Or on a highway near you. Um, thank you so much, Ronnie. Love you.

• 52:58Speaker 02

  Thank you. I love you too, Steve. Thanks.

• 52:59Steven Rinella?

  Bye, buddy.

• 53:26Steven Rinella?

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• 54:10Steven Rinella?

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• 54:52Steven Rinella?

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• 55:35Steven Rinella?

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• 55:46Speaker 00

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