Cooke City, an avalanche, and an amanzing little survivor-dog

Missing dog found four days after Montana avalanche

Cooke City is such a beautiful place, with some amazing people and big hearts, but a sad place, too.

Two years ago campers were killed in a nearby campground by a grizzly bear that had previously recieved a food reward.

When I lived there, a long time resident, a restaurant cook and 'town protector' of sorts, told me where he wanted his ashes spread before my friend Jenny and I went back to school.  And shortly thereafter he died.

We spread his ashes on a bluff with a phenomenal view of Pointer and Index peaks in the Beartooth Mountains.  There are reminders of the town scattered in the strangest places.  When I was telling the story of Ted's ashes to a woman I met at a conference several years later, not only did she know the town and the view, but she and her husband had Pointer and Index engraved on their wedding rings.

When I see the picture of this little dog, I remember the chow puppy that Ted and several locals rescued from and abusive owner.  Several large men, as the story was told to me, arrived on the man's door step, gave him fifty dollars, and took the dog.  They were going to give it to me, but I wasn't sure I could take it back to school with me, plus someone else gave one of them a refigerator for it.

The dog is the main story in this article, but it's pretty light on details about the humans.  Such a sad story.  It's a crazy little amazing place.