Toddler lost in Oregon wilderness found safe by woman on horseback and her dog

Fox News ^ | November 9, 2019 | Robert Gearty

[luv2ski]

The frantic search for a missing 2-year-old girl lost in the Oregon wilderness had a happy ending after the toddler was found safe by a woman on horseback and her dog. Tammy Stevens, 59, of Beaverton, was out for a ride Thursday morning with her horse, Bo, and her dogs, Wilson and Maddie, miniature Australian Shepherds, when she joined the search for the missing girl, according to Sgt. Marcus Mendoza, a spokesman for the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office. Little Iris Nix was walking with her grandmother on a trail in the Molalla River Recreation Area when she ran ahead and out of sight, Mendoza said. He said as Stevens scouted terrain she described as steep and dangerous, she heard a child crying. “I said to Wilson, ‘Go get her and show me the way,’” Stevens said in a recorded interview with a deputy. “Wilson was climbing for her so I tied Bo up and then climbed up, really steep, super steep, about 70 feet and there she was,” she said. “She was pretty upset.” Iris was out for a walk with her grandmother Gayla Ann Jay, 62, of Molalla, and a sibling, when she disappeared. Her grandmother looked for 15 minutes and then summoned help from loggers passing by. "Yeah, 15 minutes I could tolerate. After 15 minutes I started to lose it," Gayla told Fox 12 Oregon. Iris was lost in the wood for about two hours. “It was a really good story,” Stevens said. “I’m so thankful.”

[piasa]

No, the dog went up the incline. That does not mean the child got there the same way or from the same direction or height... her and her grandma were probably up high and the girl wandered or slid downward to the place.

[AndyJackson]

Children instinctively climb up to avoid predators.

Just to hijack this thread by stirring up the anti-evolutionary crowd, it's our descent from simians.

[null and void]

Who could read that and have dry eyes? Not me, for one.

[null and void]

Or maybe grandma simply can’t hobble as fast as you can run?

[null and void]

Yep. Watch out for YECs.

[PapaBear3625]

I can understand why some parents put their toddlers on a leash!

I did, way back when. My attitude was "I'd rather get strange looks than have a missing kid".

I also would put a luggage tag with our phone numbers on the kid's belt loop.

[redcatcherb412]

Brandy’s Story: Just an Old Golden Retriever

There is nothing, NOTHING like the devotion, smarts and loyalty of a Golden. I miss my boy so bad. My last picture of "Dusty Joe" the day I had to have him put to sleep after cancer completely paralyzed the lower half of his body.

[Revel]

“A toddler climbed up a 70-foot steep incline? Something about this seems odd. I wish the story had more detail.”

The story does not say that. Don’t make assumptions without thinking about all the possibilities.

[Let's Roll]

I couldn’t get past “One of her legs was hanging over a 35-foot drop to a stream below.” without bursting into tears.

Brandy didn’t just find Adam, she literally saved his life, at what could have cost hers.

[Let's Roll]

How many of us deserve that kind of devotion?

But I guess that’s the point - when it comes to dogs - good, bad or indifferent they love us anyway even at the risk of their own lives.

[yoe]

Good Heavens! This is the most beautifully touching story, so well written and worth the half box of kleenex it has taken to keep my eyes clear in order to read. Thank you Scarpetta, for sharing.

[Veto!]

I saw a report on the morning tv news. The rescuer said she just followed her instinct and so did her horse. Lovely woman, beautiful horse, dear little kid.

IDIOT grandmother.

[prov1813man]

None better. We had two spanning 25 years who went everywhere with our boys as they were growing up. They were both fabulous, friendly and fierce when needed to be. They were better known in our small town than we were. Miss them both.

[NorthstarMom]

Until we had our fourth child I never understood how people could lose their toddlers. She was unreal in her ability to quietly disappear, get into stuff and climb. At just 13 months she pushed a backless counter stool to the fridge then climbed up and stood on her tiptoes on the seat with nothing to grab for balance, trying to reach the markers and crayons I kept on top of the refrigerator.

She got bolder and more agile with every month. God protected her in some instances that could have ended tragically. Until she was about five years old, I was weary from constant vigilance.

[fini]

"A toddler climbed up a 70-foot steep incline? Something about this seems odd. I wish the story had more detail."

Each child is very different. At the age of two, my daughter would disappear in the blink of an eye. We had to lock doors inside the house and put extra locks on the outside doors. We did everything but put hobblers on her.

[GBA]

Back in the 80s I remember seeing moms in the mall with their little kids in a harness connected to a long leash.

It was the 80s and me not having had much experience with little kids yet, I thought those must be awful moms to do that to their precious children.

But you know what, that seems like a great idea now ... maybe one of those 26’ long Flexi leashes for hiking the trail?

[SunTzuWu]

A toddler climbed up a 70-foot steep incline?

You are assuming that the toddler and the searcher started from the same location.

[PGalt]

Good news! Thanks for posting.

[luv2ski]

Brandy’s Story: Just an Old Golden Retriever I grew up in your average middle-class Jewish home where pets were not available. I never had a pet. There was a lot of plastic on the furniture. Basically, pets were considered dirty, unwanted things. Animals were not part of my experience, so I had not conscience about them. I got married in 1968, and in 1970 I had a baby. When he was 18 months old, we were living in a bungalow colony in upstate New York while waiting for our home to be built. An elderly woman and her old golden retriever lived next door. I used to see them together when the woman was outside gardening. My son liked the dog, and she was a friendly animal, but that was all as far as I was concerned. When the woman died, her relatives came up, and they emptied her house of her treasures, her clothing, anything they thought of value. They contacted a real estate agent who put out a For Sale sign on her property. Then they locked the dog out and drove away. Because I’d grown up with no conscience about animals, it didn’t even cross my mind to say, “Wait a minute. Someone should be taking care of this dog” or “who is going to be responsible for her?” It just didn’t. I was not responsible for the dog. Some of the neighbors mentioned that they’d feed her occasionally, but the dog mostly stayed near the house where she’d lived, where her owner had died. When the dog would come over to play with my son, Adam, he would feed her cookies; once in a while I would give her some leftovers. One afternoon I went to get Adam, who’d been outside playing in our yard—a safe, level grassy area—and he was gone. Just gone. I was frantic. I looked for him, and then neighbors helped me look for him. We called the police. For three hours the police looked for him, then they called the state police. The state police brought in helicopters. My husband rushed home form the city. I was hysterical. We could not find Adam. We didn’t know if he’d been abducted. We didn’t know if he was alive. We could not find him. The search had been going on for six hours when a neighbor, who’d just returned home, said, “Where’s Brandy?” Brandy? The dog? Why was he asking about the dog? Someone else said, “Maybe he’s with Adam.” What did I know about animals? I said, “Why would she be with Adam? What does that mean?” One of the troopers recalled that he’d heard a dog barking deep in the woods when they were doing the foot search. And suddenly everybody started to yell “Brandy!” including me. We heard faint barking and followed the sound. We found my 18-month-old son, standing up, fast asleep, pressed against the trunk of a tree. Brandy was holding him there with one shoulder. One of her legs was hanging over a 35-foot drop to a stream below. She must have followed Adam when he wandered off, just as a dog will with a child, and she saw danger. She was a better mother than I; she’d pushed him out of harm’s way – and held him there. This was an old dog. Adam was an 18-month-old child. He struggled, I’m sure, but she’d held him there for all those hours. When I picked him up, she collapsed. As the trooper carried my son back home, I, sobbing with relief, carried Brandy. I knew in that instant that she was coming home with me, too. Brandy spent the rest of her life with us, and I loved her completely; she lived to be 17 years old. From then on, I made it a point to learn everything I could about animals. My focus at the time was old golden retrievers. Obviously, I thought they were the smartest, the best, and there was nothing like them. I started the first golden retriever rescue and have had as many as 35 of them in the house at a time, and it mushroomed from there. Because of Brandy, I have a calling. I have a reason to get up in the morning. Because of Brandy, thousands of unwanted animals have been given safe lives. I can’t save them all, but I can make a difference. We now have 300 animals—all kinds, including birds and pot-bellied pigs—and are a well-recognized humane animal sanctuary. We take the animals that other shelters won’t take—the ones my mother would have said were dirty; the old ones who are incontinent, the blind, the ugly ones; they’re all beautiful to me. So many organizations feel it’s easier to euthanize these animals. I don’t agree. How could I? If someone had put an abandoned 11-year-old golden retriever to sleep 29 years ago, I would not have a child. I wouldn’t have a son who is the light of my life.

Oh my goodness. I am so glad I posted that story b/c I would have never read yours otherwise. I have tears running down my face as I type this. You have saved so many and lived a wonderful life! Thank you so much for sharing it and thank you also for all the good you have done.

[Waverunner]