Dog guarded its owner for weeks after suicide

Wednesday, August 13, 2008 - Page updated at 12:00 AM

Dog guarded its owner for weeks after suicide

By The Denver Post and The Associated Press

Sara Baysinger, of La Salle, Colo., sits with her 2-year-old son, Lane, and Cash, the family's 3-year-old German shepherd, at home Monday.

DENVER — Rancher Kip Konig saw the German shepherd in the distance as he checked his cows Sunday in the Pawnee National Grasslands.

The dog kept running back to a partially obscured pickup and jumping into the front seat.

"I got the sense she was trying to tell me where her master was," Konig said.

Near the pickup, Konig found the skeletal remains of Jake Baysinger, 25, the German shepherd's owner. Baysinger is believed to have shot himself about six weeks earlier on the plains about 75 miles northeast of Denver.

Baysinger and the dog, Cash, left their home in La Salle, in northern Colorado, on June 28.

Konig thinks the dog had been guarding Baysinger.

"At least we know it's over now," Baysinger's wife, Sara, said Tuesday. "We'd been looking for my husband for six weeks, and this isn't how we wanted it to end. At least we can close this."

The dog had apparently survived by eating mice and rabbits, authorities said.

Cash kept watch over the man who adopted her when she was a puppy, Baysinger said.

"She was Jake's baby," Baysinger said. "She was our baby before we had our son."

Sara, 23, and Jake were childhood sweethearts and married five years ago.

Baysinger said investigators told her they think Cash protected Jake's body from coyotes and other animals and would jump into the pickup, which had both of its windows rolled down, to get out of the weather.

Except for being dehydrated, Cash was in good health, Baysinger said.

Dr. Mindi Dosch, the vet who examined Cash, said the dog was thin but in good health. At the clinic Cash was "kissing" everyone and was "bright and alert."

"She was a very intelligent dog to live for that long," Dosch said.

On Monday, Baysinger was reunited with Cash at the Weld County Humane Society.

"She was extremely excited," Baysinger said. "She was jumping on me and excited to get out of there."

One of the happiest reunions was between Cash and Lane Baysinger, 2.

"He went running toward her ... trying to feed her treats," Sara Baysinger said.

According to Chris Robillard, deputy coroner in Weld County, it appears Jake Baysinger committed suicide with a 9-mm semi-automatic pistol.

Robillard suspects Baysinger killed himself June 28, when he disappeared with Cash.

Although it was a tragic end to her husband's life, Baysinger said she has fond memories of Jake and Cash: "They would go to a park ... and they would play fetch forever and ever and ever."

Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008109752_loyaldog13.html

Sad about the guy killing himself and being there for 6 weeks. Sad about the dog having to fend for itself for 6 weeks. But sweet about him being so protective.