‘The whole thing is a miracle’
NEWS
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, March 9, 2022
A5
Missing dog reunited
with homeless owner
after eight months
By SUZANNE ROIG
The Bulletin
BEND — First there were tears of
joy, then tears of sadness.
Tammie Broggin’s voice shook on
Thursday, Feb. 24, as she described
her reunion with her 6-year-old dog,
Betty Sue, who she thought had died
in the Bootleg Fire near Klamath
Falls last summer. On Wednesday
they spent their fi rst night together
in eight months, huddled in a sleep-
ing bag inside a tent in Blythe, Cal-
ifornia, where Broggin is now living
because she’s homeless.
Luck, and the help of a few good
people in Bend, brought Broggin and
Betty Sue together Wednesday after-
noon in Blythe, 1,074 miles away
from Central Oregon. That’s after the
dog somehow covered the 137 miles
between Klamath Falls and Bend and
was picked up by the Humane Soci-
ety of Central Oregon.
“I’m so fl oored I got my Betty
back,” the 59-year-old Broggin told
The Bulletin in a phone call. “Betty
sure got a lot of attention. She’s act-
ing like nothing ever happened since
she has been gone.”
The journey began back in July,
when the Bootleg Fire ripped through
the Fremont-Winema National Forest,
where Broggin lived with Betty Sue
and fi ve other dogs. When the fi re got
too close, and Broggin was forced to
evacuate, she tried to lure Betty into
the van that would drive them away.
But the dog refused and ran off .
She was afraid to get in the car,
Broggin said.
Tammie Broggin/Contributed Photo
Betty Sue burying some food in the dirt outside Tammie Broggin’s tent in Bly-
the, California.
Tammie Broggin/Contributed Photo
Tammie Broggin spends time with her dogs in this undated photo.
In the months that followed,
Broggin moved around Oregon and
wound up in in a small desert town
on the border of Arizona and Califor-
nia called Blythe. Betty Sue wound
up in Bend. How, is anyone’s guess.
“Bend is a long way from where
we were,” Broggin said. “I can’t
imagine how she did it.”
When Betty Sue arrived at the
Humane Society shelter in Bend, she
was skittish, said Lynne Ouchida,
Humane Society of Central Oregon
community outreach manager. The
dog had been spotted on Pettigrew
Road in Bend by an area resident
who contacted Katie Albright, who
runs Lost and Found Pets in Bend,
Ouchida said.
With the help of an animal control
offi cer, they captured the dog.
But Betty Sue bit the offi cer and
had to be placed in isolation at the
shelter for 10 days for a rabies hold.
At the Humane Society, every
time someone tried to get close to
Betty Sue, she’d growl, Ouchida
said. When they fi nally did, they
learned she was microchipped.
But it was from out of state. And
there was no record of a current
owner.
A bit of sleuthing led the Humane
Society to Broggin and a phone call
to Blythe with news that Betty Sue
had been found.
“Thank god she was chipped,”
Broggin said. “This whole thing is a
miracle.”
But the call brought bad news,
too: Broggin needed to retrieve Betty
Sue soon.
Broggin had no resources, was on
disability and had no car. She was
desperate, scrambling to fi nd a ride to
Bend. Realizing the situation, Ouch-
ida and others at the Humane Society
reached out to volunteers who made
the reunion happen.
At fi rst they thought they could
put the dog in a kennel and drive her
on the 16-plus hour trip to Blythe
with a transport company and vol-
unteers. No one thought that was a
really good idea, though.
Then Ouchida reached out to the
Leading Edge Jet Center in Bend,
which located two private pilots
headed to California who were will-
ing to fl y a little farther and meet
Broggin.
Angela Keeling and her husband
operate a pet transport nonprofi t
called Fetch. They’ve made jour-
neys before, transporting pets from
one place where there were too many
pets to another that needed pets to be
placed for adoption.
But they were nothing at all like
this trip, Keeling said.
During the 2-hour 45-minute
fl ight, Betty Sue appeared despon-
dent, Keeling said. She wasn’t misbe-
having or growling. She was simply
quiet, like a dog that was unhappy.
In Blythe, Betty Sue heard Brog-
gin’s voice for the fi rst time in
months.
“When we opened the cargo door,
she picked up her head and stood up
in the crate. She’d hear her mom’s
voice,” Keeling said. “I don’t want
to sound corny, but we’ve never seen
nothing like this. It was magical. We
saw a diff erent dog.”
Broggin said that reunion was one
for the memory books.
“When I saw her on the tar-
mac, she got a wiggle going and she
thought mom,” Broggin said. “She
played with the rest of the dogs who
were all there to meet her. She totally
changed as soon as she saw me.
“She’s a little clingier now.”
COPS AND COURTS
Arrests and citations in the
Blue Mountain Eagle are taken
from the logs of law enforce-
ment agencies. Every eff ort is
made to report the court dispo-
sition of arrest cases.
Grant County Circuit
Court
March 3: Fritz Voigt of
Prairie City pleaded guilty to
driving under the infl uence of
intoxicants (cannabis) in con-
nection with an incident on
May 13. He was sentenced
to two years of bench pro-
bation, 10 days in jail with
credit for time served and 120
hours of community service
or work crew time. In addi-
tion, Voigt was fi ned $1,500,
directed to complete the Vic-
tim Impact Panel program,
ordered to install an ignition
interlock device in his vehicle,
and required to obtain a sub-
stance abuse evaluation and
complete any recommended
treatment.
Grant County Sheriff
The Grant County Sheriff ’s
Offi ce reported the following
for the week ending March 2:
Concealed
handgun
licenses: 9
Average inmates: 12
Bookings: 7
Releases: 10
Arrests: 4
Citations: 5
Fingerprints: 2
Civil papers: 22
Warrants processed: 1
Asst./welfare check: 0
Search and rescue: 1
Justice Court
The Grant County Justice
Court reported the following
activity for the week ending
March 2:
Driver’s license suspen-
sions: 6
Persons on probation: 45
Traffi c citations fi led: 22
Small claims/civil fi led: 6
Hearings held: 9
Careless driving resulting
in an accident: Haleigh Chanel
Crismon, 20, Portland, Dec.
31, fi ned $340.
Dispatch
Grant County dispatch
worked 139 calls during
the week ending March 4,
including:
• Oregon State Police
March 4
4 p.m.: Advised of a driving
complaint on Highway 26 east
of Prairie City.
• Grant County Sheriff ’s
Offi ce
Feb. 25
4:51 p.m.: Traffi c stop,
Highway 26 in Mt. Vernon.
Stacey Lee Durych, 54, of Mt.
Vernon was cited for speeding.
Feb. 26
1:37 a.m.: Responded to
Park Avenue, Seneca, for an
animal complaint. Lonnie Ash-
ley, 54, of Seneca was cited for
allowing a dog to be a public
nuisance.
8:15 a.m.: Responded to
Cottonwood Street, Mt. Ver-
non, for a civil issue.
10:52 a.m.: Responded to
North Mountain Boulevard,
Mt. Vernon, for a civil issue.
11:05 a.m.: Responded to
West Main Street, John Day,
for a civil issue.
1:09 p.m.: Responded to
Blue Mountain Hospital, John
Day, for a civil issue.
1:29 p.m.: Responded to
Wall Creek airstrip, Monu-
ment, for a small plane crash.
One of the aircraft’s occupants
was injured and was trans-
ported to Blue Mountain Hos-
pital in John Day. Grant County
Search and Rescue, U.S. Forest
Service law enforcement, Ore-
gon State Police, Monument
Fire, Monument Ambulance
and John Day Ambulance also
responded.
2:18 p.m.: Responded to
East Main Street, John Day, for
an injured animal.
2:51 p.m.: Responded to
Bare Bones Bar, John Day,
for warrant service. Elmer
Ray Ahrendsen, 48, of John
Day was arrested on a warrant
from Grant County Parole and
Probation.
5:11 p.m.: Responded to
East Main Street, John Day, for
a driving complaint.
8:02 p.m.: Traffi c stop,
South Canyon Boulevard,
John Day. Aaron Christopher
Chapel, 18, of La Pine was
cited for failure to carry proof
of insurance.
Feb. 27
7:01 a.m.: Responded to
Southwest Brent Street, John
Day, for a driving complaint.
A 16-year-old Seneca girl was
cited for careless driving and
failure to perform the duties of
a driver in an accident.
8:30 a.m.: Responded to
Southeast Gunther Street, John
Day, for a civil issue.
Feb. 28
11:06 a.m.: Responded to
Malheur Lumber, John Day,
for a hit-and-run.
5:24 p.m.: Advised of a
cow in the road on Southwest
Fourth Avenue, John Day.
March 1
6:47 a.m.: Responded to
Council Drive, Mt. Vernon,
for warrant service. Spen-
cer Leifheit, 45, of Mt. Ver-
non was arrested on a Grant
County warrant.
8 p.m.: Responded to Air-
port Road, John Day, for a
livestock complaint.
March 2
9:58 a.m.: Responded to
East Main Street, John Day,
for a suspicious vehicle.
10:51 a.m.: Responded to
Southwest Brent Drive, John
Day, for a suspicious person.
11:03 a.m.: Responded to
Southwest Brent Drive, John
Day, for a suspicious person.
12:20 p.m.: Responded to
Highway 26 at Carpenter Pond
Road for a rock in the roadway.
1:30 p.m.: Responded to
West Main Street and Canton
Street, John Day, for a walk-
ing domestic dispute. Spen-
cer Leifheit, 45, of Mt. Vernon
was arrested on charges of dis-
orderly conduct, strangulation
and harassment.
March 3
8:26 a.m.: Responded to
the Grant County Industrial
Park, John Day, for a suspi-
cious person.
9:12 p.m.: Responded to
Dog Patch Lane east of John
Day for a civil problem.
March 4
2:36 a.m.: Responded to
North Humbolt Street, Canyon
City, for a noise complaint.
10:33 a.m.: Responded to
West Main Street, John Day,
for a juvenile attempting to
fl ag down traffi c or hitchhike.
12:11 p.m.: Responded to
Highway 26 near Mt. Vernon
for an animal complaint.
• John Day Ambulance
Feb. 25
6:24 p.m.: Dispatched to
Riverside Mobile Home Park
for an 83-year-old woman
with a back injury.
Feb. 26
1:58 p.m.: Patient transfer
at the airport.
March 1
7:19 a.m.: Dispatched to
Highway 26 near milepost
166 for a single-vehicle crash.
March 2
11:35 a.m.: Dispatched to
Cottonwood Street, Mt. Ver-
non, for a possible overdose.
9:30 p.m.: Dispatched to
Highway 26 west of John Day
for a female who passed out.
March 3
9:26 a.m.: Dispatched to
Valley View Assisted Living
for a 74-year-old male with
shortness of breath.
2:39 p.m.: Patient transfer
at the airport.
• Prairie City Ambulance
Feb. 27
7:39 a.m.:
Dispatched
to South Main Street for an
88-year-old male with dia-
betic issues.
• John Day Fire
March 1
1:56 a.m.: Dispatched to
Riverside Mobile Home Park,
John Day, for a tire burning in
the bed of a pickup truck.
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