Kelso was in Waco
By Kate Burke, Staff Writer
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Kelly Michaels and Chadd Priefert were happily reunited with their lost dog, Kelso (center), on Monday, Jan. 4. Kelso ran away when the family vehicle was involved in a crash on I-80 near Waco on Christmas Day. Also welcoming him home are Peetie (left) and Fez. All of the dogs are German shorthair pointers.
WACO — “I just got up and I had to come out to the living room and see, is he really here?”
Kelly Michaels was very happy on Tuesday morning. Ten days after her dog ran away from a car crash on I-80, Kelso, a German shorthair pointer, was found and returned.
Kelly and her fiance, Chadd Priefert, were driving from Omaha to Hebron for Christmas Day celebrations when they were involved in a multi-vehicle collision during a whiteout on the interstate. Two of the couple’s three dogs were quickly found; Kelso ran off.
Kelly and Chadd contacted the York News-Times with their appeal for help, but before the story even appeared on Tuesday morning, Kelso was found by Pat and Bruce Olson of Waco, who live near the place where he was lost.
They recognized Kelso from a flyer Kelly and Chadd had tucked into their door very early in their search.
“We’d been kind of watching for him,” Pat Olson says.
The Olsons’ own dog, a Great Pyrenees named Quincy, began barking into the darkness on Monday night, Jan. 4. Bruce Olson stepped outside to check the situation, and the stray dog came right up to him.
“I think it’s that pup,” Pat reports her husband saying.
Kelso was ready to come inside, get warm and eat.
“He cleaned out our cat food bowl and dog food bowl, and Bruce fed him a couple of hot dogs,” Pat laughs.
The Olsons contacted the Omaha couple, immediately certain that they had found Kelso.
Kelly and Chadd were in an Omaha supermarket when they got the call they had been waiting for. The Olsons, Kelly says, kindly offered to keep Kelso overnight, but Chadd and Kelly jumped into their vehicle and drove out to pick up their dog. They arrived in Waco around 10 p.m.
“It’s him, it’s so amazing,” Kelly says happily.
Kelso is very thin and shows signs of frostbite on his muzzle, Kelly says, but overall he seems to be in good shape. Chadd and Kelly have plans to get him in for a veterinarian checkup as soon as possible.
Kelso is very tired, Kelly reports. “He tried to jump up on the bed, but he was too weak.”
He is also reluctant to step outside, into the bitter cold, right now.
“If only he could talk . . . what stories would he tell of his 10 days out in the snow?” Kelly speculates.
Kelly came away from the ordeal feeling good.
“I’m amazed by peoples’ kindness,” she says. “It’s okay with us that we didn’t celebrate Christmas because of the accident . . . because we learned and gained so much more: the true gifts of kindness . . . from complete strangers.
“We thank all of you, Kelso thanks you,” she continues. “We promise to pay it forward when someone crosses our path of life in need of help as we were.”
Resource: http://www.yorknewstimes.com/articles/2010/01/07/news/doc4b44fa49c1fcc225289200.txt
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