San Lorenzo, California is a beautiful town, filled with eloquent attractions.
A well-known attraction is the Redwood Forest. A place where all the locals and even tourists visit for peaceful walks through the beautiful Redwood trees. Many visitors take their four-legged friends on hikes through the forest and treat them to a stop at the crystal clear stream at the end of the trails. Dan Estrada and Vincent Lopez were doing just that. They have been friends for years and decided to take their dogs on a walk on a spring-like day in late February.
After their hike, they stopped by the stream to let Estrada’s pitbull, Koelsch, get a sip of water. While standing on the bank of the stream, they noticed a dog laying in the dirt near the water. When the dog heard the two men, it’s head raised slowly. Dan was immediately overwhelmed with joy. He knew this dog. This was his neighbor’s blind Labrador, Sage. She had been missing for over a week.
Sage’s owners had posted lost dog signs all around town offering an award. They even posted the information on Facebook, called a professional dog tracker, and had search teams walk around town to try to find Sage. All searches ended with no dog in site. This gave a pessimistic outlook on the search for Sage, due to the area being known for lurking mountain lions.
Immediately, Dan Estrada ran up to the dog and kissed her all over. He has a close relationship with her, as his pups play with Sage on a daily basis. Estrada noticed Sage was exhausted and weak. He hoisted Sage over his shoulders fireman style and carried the 12-year-old dog up the hill.
“It really was a miracle,” Estrada shared.
“I’m happy we found the dog,” said Lopez.
When Estrada got home, his wife called the owners and they raced Sage to the vet. The vet examined the dog, and luckily, she was deemed healthy, despite her exhaustion.
Once Sage was home and well rested, the community gathered to welcome her home. One neighbor fried up a steak and fed it to Sage. Making her feel full…not just from food, but of love as well!
“Our neighbors and other members of the community helped us search day and night for a week,” Sage’s owner Beth Cole said, “We looked everywhere.”
When Cole offered the $1,000 reward for finding Sage, both Estrada and Vincent declined the money. They asked that it be donated to the local animal shelter. The same shelter will be throwing a “Welcome home” party for Sage, which will also be a benefit to raise more money for the shelter.
After Sage’s safe return home, Estrada was overwhelmed with phone calls and messages from people praising him for his heroic act. The news of him saving Sage went viral. This was a little strange for him since he has served as a firefighter and paramedic for Livermore Pleasant Fire Department for two decades, saving had been his job and passion.
Over the past 2 decades, he has rescued a lot of people. 6 years ago he did save a dog from a burning house. It was trapped in a closet, and the house was filled with smoke, but Estrada went in and brought the dog to safety.
Dan is very humbled by all the social media attention and the phone calls. He is hoping that his act of kindness inspires others to take the time out of their day to be kind to others, and do good acts.
Recently, Estrada and his friend Vincent Lopez were on another adventure. They were on their way to a bachelor party and saw a couple of men broke down with a flat tire. I think we all know what happened: They stopped to help; it’s just in their nature!
Let’s help the random acts of kindness spread around the world by SHARING Sage’ s rescue story.
Article via Today
