By Jennifer Stultz
Tri-County Tribune Editor
jstultz@cherryroad.com

Zeke is just a big, white dog that guards chickens, cattle, grandchildren, and cats at the home of Duane and Jennifer Wahrman just west of Pratt City limits. His family is very thankful to still have him among the living this Thanksgiving, however, after he was injured in an accident on U.S. Highway 54/400 last week.

“It happened Saturday night, November 16,” said Jennifer Wahrman. “Duane was watching football and I had just gone to bed. I was flipping through Pratt Neighbors Helping Neighbors on Facebook just to see if anything interesting was going on and someone had just posted about a Great Pyreness dog getting hit on the highway. I jumped out of bed and ran to check on our three dogs. They never go out to the highway, it’s a mile south of our place, but I just knew something was wrong.”

Wahrman said two of their three dogs were in their usual places on the porch, but Zeke was missing.

“He’s such a good dog,” Wahrman said. “We got him earlier this year because we had lost more than 30 of our chickens to some kind of predator already. Once we got him, that all stopped. He watched over the chickens and patrolled our boundaries. He was a sweetheart to our grandkids, he was just a part of our family. We all loved him so much.”

But when Zeke wasn’t at his usual guard position that Saturday night, the Wahrmans jumped into their pickup and drove the section calling and looking for their dog. When the got to the highway a mile and a half away, they could see several police cars with flashing lights along the road.

“They were looking for a big dog they said, and the officer in charge handed me a red collar. It was Zeke’s,” Wahrman said. “I just cried and cried, and then we started looking. I just couldn’t bear the thought of him being out there and dying all alone. I was sure he was a goner. Someone witnessed him being hit by a truck. I just wanted to find him.”

Minutes turned to hours of calling and tromping through ditches, high grasses and trees, but no Zeke.

Finally, Duane Wahrman went over to the 7 Boutique Hotel on the south side of the highway, and sure enough, someone there knew something.

“We still don’t know how he got there, but someone had pulled Zeke up to the hotel and they put him in a room. He was not conscious, but we found our dog,” Wahrman said.

Zeke was checked by the Wahrman’s vet and did not seem to have any broken bones, but when he came back to consciousness, he didn’t seem to recognize anyone or have any ability to move on his own. The family took him home for what they were sure were his last hours.

Hourly checks throughout the night didn’t reveal any change in Zeke’s status.

“He was having trouble breathing and I was sure he was on his way out,” Wahrman said. “I prayed and prayed to God that our dog would recover. We just weren’t ready to let him go, my heart was just broken.”

At 4:30 a.m. Zeke lifted his head and slowly wagged his tail when Wahrman went to the garage to check. She knew then that her prayers were being answered.

“He has made a miraculous recovery,” she said. “He still moves a little slower than usual, but he is back at his job, loving on the grandkids, watching over the chickens, barking at the coyotes. The vet said he likely took the brunt of the accident on the highway on his head and it knocked him for a loop. We are just so thankful he survived and is back with us.”

Wahrman said that now when Zeke is on the job his bark sounds hoarse, a last remnant of the accident, but she just smiles as she listens to him out guarding and d0ing what he loves. She is thankful that some kind person cared enough to pull him off the highway after he got hit last week and took him to the nearby hotel.

“Prayers were answered,” she said. “Someone was the hands and feet of God.”