Back in the mid-sixties I was eighteen, living in the last house off Neal Rd in Paradise, CA. Yea, the place that burned up in the huge 2018 Camp Fire.

I was breaking horses with a buddy and I had a favorite mare that I took for a long ride down into the canyon one day.

Usually I would let my dog Sandy, a smart beautiful yellow lab, tag along on rides, but this day I wasn't sure of the terrain so I had my mom keep her in the house. Which she did for an hour before Sandy drove her crazy to get outside, and she let her out.

I was a couple miles down into this virgin canyon, when guess who showed up on our tail? What a great nose she had, down in country she had never been in.

My brother ended up taking her down to the Bay Area when she got older. She ran away from there and was caught on one of the big bridges, trying to get back home to Paradise, 150 miles away. She was put down shortly after.

Sandy was a great dog!