COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho -- A man and his best friend are back together again, thanks to Good Samaritans and a little bit of luck.
Logging truck driver Dave Stanton came away with just a few broken bones after a crash on Highway 95 south of Coeur d’Alene back in March. Also riding in cab was Stanton's dog, Jenni.
"I thought 'I wrecked, did she make it?' What happened to her,” Stanton said.
A dynamite team of first responders started to patch him up. Around the same time, around two-dozen other first responders went looking for Jenni.
"I was in a little bit of a panic. They said, 'Don't worry. We've got people looking for her,'" Stanton explained.
But they came up empty. Stanton was taken to the hospital and for the next handful of hours, Jenni's whereabouts and her wellbeing remained a mystery. Until…
"I saw that it was black and white and thought 'Oh my gosh, it's actually a dog,'" he said.
Megan Bjerke was on her way home from work as a parole officer in Coeur d’Alene. After spotting Jenni, she could not help but turn around and pull over.
"She kind of popped her head up and looked at me," Bjerke said.
Eventually, some other folks passing by stopped to help. One of them was familiar with Stanton's trucking company and got to work tracking him down. Bjerke, a dog lover herself, took the injured pup to the vet.
"I would go crazy if I knew that my dogs had run away. Especially not knowing what happened to her, I can only imagine what was going through his mind," Bjerke said.
A couple of weeks later, and Jenni was reunited with Stanton down in Lewiston, where he is recovering. He has several more weeks to heal. But Jenni, she only had a hip injury and is doing just fine.
"She hugged me and loved on me. And her tail wagged and all the good stuff puppies do," Stanton said. "A whole bunch of relief. Just nice to know she was doing ok. She was hurt but she was ok."
Once Stanton heals up, we can only imagine it will not be long before the pair are back in a truck cab once again.