BY PATTI SCOTT
On Friday, Jan. 2, Mark, Ann Marie, Ava and Adan were traveling east on I-10 heading home to New Orleans. After a terrifying crash during an ice storm at mile marker 132 (by the rock quarry), they were rear ended by a passing car and then hit head on by an 18-wheeler.
There were no injuries. The passenger door on the driver side came open and their service dog, Carter, bolted from the crash site, crossing four lanes of skidding cars and ice and entered the Rock Quarry for safety.
The family was taken to the Van Horn High School gym for shelter.
This is when we learned that Carter was missing. Ann Marie, the mother, asked for help in finding Carter. David Scott volunteered to take the family back to the site of the crash on Saturday to search for Carter, a white dog with brown ears, in the snow from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and no Carter. They searched again on Sunday afternoon and Monday morning before starting their trek back to New Orleans. Several others from the talc mine and ranchers on four wheelers were also searching.
On Wednesday, a man in a 1973 red pickup truck traveling east on I-10 near Sierra Blanca, noticed a dog setting on the side of the road. He stopped to check on the dog, and found the number to call the owners.
He had found Carter. Thin, scruffy and dirty, Carter jumped into the cab of the truck.
He had spent five days and nights in below-freezing barren land with coyotes, jack rabbits and deer, no food or water.
As luck would have it, the gentleman that had rescued Carter was from Lake Charles, Louisiana, just three hours from New Orleans. Alive and well, his hero drove him back to his family. So may miracles, faith and love prevail!
What were the odds that Carter would travel 40 miles in the wrong direction and be rescued by someone from Louisiana? God works in mysterious ways.
