Valerie's return prompts celebration

By MARLISA KEYES

Hagadone News Network

Valerie must have been terrified.

All of the car's windows shattered around her and she probably tumbled around inside the vehicle after it slid across four lanes on Highway 95, struck the merge sign near Woods Meats and rolled.

The accident would be the beginning of a five-week search by her owner for Valerie, a border-collie and golden retriever mix dog.

"There were citizens everywhere looking for her," said her owner, Darlene Widdifield.

When emergency crews loaded her in an ambulance on Thursday Jan. 4, Widdifield was reassured someone had caught the dog that she rescued from a ditch on Valentine's Day seven years earlier.

"I would not have left her if they didn't tell me they had her," she said.

Instead, the dog eluded capture and ran loose along Highway 95.

Widdifield, the activities director for Boundary Community Hospital in Bonners Ferry, was headed to Sandpoint for a doctor's appointment.

It was a sunny day. The Boundary County resident had brought Valerie with her as she usually does.

The dog is a regular at the hospital, making the trip several times a week to visit with patients and nursing home residents.

"There's a lot of people's lives that she touches," Widdifield said.

When the log truck traveling in front of her began to slide after another vehicle ahead of it started sliding, Widdifield swerved and slid across the highway.

After her car rolled, Widdifield hung upside down in her car, suspended by the seatbelt.

Widdifield had sustained cuts on her hands, and bruised shoulder from the seatbelt. Her vehicle was totaled.

"Seriously, the seatbelt saved me," she said.

But she was concerned most about her missing dog.

As she crawled through the busted out roof of her car hollering for her dog, she discovered the close-knit community that she lives in was not far away. Bonners Ferry High School teacher John Beck and KPND employee Mike Brown, who lives near Naples, helped her out of the car.

The woman and dog had developed a strong bond after a relationship that started when Valerie was not old enough to be weaned from its mother.

Widdifield and her daughter were headed home from church on Valentine's Day when she spotted the bit of fluff.

"Somebody had thrown her in a ditch," Widdifield said. The pup's eyes were still blue and had its milk teeth, making her about a month old, her owner estimates.

Widdifield and her husband Steven began searching for the dog in Selle, Elmira and Sagle. "We were heartsick," she said.

They had a lot of help. "Pastor Bill and Tammy Henshaw, as well as friends as Hieko and Rhonda, all helped us look for Valerie until dark," Widdifield said. "They also returned several more times to help us search for our dog."

Her boss assisted them, as did the couple's pastor and his wife. So did several friends who kept their eyes open while working, one for the railroad and another for a gas company. Their neighbors also helped them search.

Widdifield also received telephone calls from people, including Naomi Wood, who had spotted Valerie near the accident scene.

Mountain Publishing printed fliers for free and Widdifield put them up everywhere, including Panhandle Animal Shelter and local veterinary offices. She placed several advertisements in the newspaper. She continued to call the animal shelter hoping that someone had found the dog.

Then five weeks later, on Thursday Feb. 8, the shelter called. A man had found a dog wandering on Baldy Mountain and turned it in to the shelter. It seemed to respond to the name Valerie and had two missing teeth in the exact location where Widdifield's had her dog's teeth pulled the year before.

"I said you've got to be kidding me," she said.

Her husband was already en route to the shelter when Widdifield received a second telephone call from the facility. She told him to wait for her.

When they arrived at Panhandle Animal Shelter, the dog started spinning circles in the kennel.

"I just fell to my knees outside her kennel," she said.

After five weeks running around in the cold, Valerie had lost 10 of her 45 pounds so her husband took the dog to Pend Oreille Veterinary Service for blood tests. When he arrived, people called her the "miracle dog."

Widdifield does not know who brought Valerie to the shelter because he did not want to fill out the paperwork. Widdifield made her husband empty the cash in his wallet for a donation to the shelter because its employees were so helpful, she said.

"I think this was a good humane citizen," she said. "I'm just thankful that she's back."

It is ironic that Valerie was found just a few days before Valentine's Day given that she was originally found on that day, Widdifield said.