Saturday Chill - Bobbie the Collie mix who found his way home

We just saw this on the Travel Channel - what a beautiful story

http://offbeatoregon.com/o1101a-bobbie-the-wonder-dog-put-silverton-on-map.html
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Lost in Illinois, the affable collie crossed the Rocky Mountains on foot in the dead of winter, making friends along the way and causing a sensation on his arrival.

The town of Silverton, nestled at the edge of the foothills of the Cascades east of Salem, has been home to some notably famous personalities, including muckraking cartoonist Homer Davenport and movie star Clark Gable.

But this town’s most famous scion is probably a dog named Bobbie.

Bobbie was a young Scotch collie mix who lived with the family of Frank and Elizabeth Brazier, owners of a popular Silverton restaurant called the Reo Café.
Bobbie & family leave on vacation

In the summer of 1923, Frank and Elizabeth packed up their Overland Red Bird touring car and headed east for a visit to Indiana. And, of course, Bobbie came with them — perched proudly atop the pile of luggage in the back seat, or else riding jauntily on a running board.

They were almost to their destination when it happened: Frank was gassing up the Red Bird when a pack of local mongrels jumped Bobbie. The last Frank saw of Bobbie that day, he was running for his life with three snarling dogs in hot pursuit.

At the time, Frank wasn’t worried. Bobbie, he thought, could take care of himself; he’d be waiting back at the house where the Braziers were staying.

But he wasn’t.

The Braziers started searching. They called around town, advertised in the local newspaper and did some driving around. Still no Bobbie.

So, leaving instructions to hang onto him if he reappeared, they continued on their trip. They’d pick him up on the way back home, they figured.

They figured wrong. Bobbie still wasn’t around on their return. So, regretfully, the Braziers continued on their way, leaving instructions to send him home on a rail car at their expense should he turn up — hoping for the best, but fearing the worst.
"Oh look — isn't that Bobbie?"

Exactly six months later, one of Elizabeth Brazier’s daughters from a previous marriage, Nova Baumgarten, was walking down a Silverton street with a friend when she suddenly seized the other girl’s arm. “Oh look — isn’t that Bobbie?” she said (or words to that effect).

Sure enough, it was Bobbie — sore of foot, matted of coat, his toenails worn down to nothing. Bobbie had logged more than 2,500 miles and probably well over 3,000 — swimming rivers and crossing the Continental Divide in the dead of winter to get back home to Silverton.
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How beautiful is this story