Doggo lost after car crash gets found herding sheep

Linda and Mike Oswald had just begin their road trip from Idaho to Wash, when suddenly a car slammed into them.

The crash shattered their back window and their border collie, Tilly, was thrown out of the vehicle. Luckily no one was seriously injured in the collision, they said, but shocked and reeling from the crash, the Oswalds' main concern was Tilly. A nurse approached the family's vehicle to check on everyone and advised Oswald to stay in the car but Linda Oswald knew she had to find Tilly, and when she got out of the car, she witnessed Tilly zooming off into the distant fields across Idahoe's Rathdrum Prairie.

Luckily, a half dozen helpful people who pulled over when they saw the crash fanned out and helped look for the lost doggo too. They spread out, searching the area near the crash for about 10 hours. "2:30 in the morning some people were out looking for him" Oswald explained. In the spirit of the best parts of humanity, locals gathered together to search.

"In the middle of the night, people were out calling for him. I was extremely grateful.", she said. Eventually, the Oswalds headed home "sore and exhausted" but unrelenting in the search for their beloved Tilly, putting word out on a Facebook post that a 2-year old border collie pupper was missing, including a picture of Tilly. That post amassed more than 3,000 shares with thousands in the area on the lookout for this little lost friend.

Photo shared by Linda Oswald

However, after almost two days of searching there had been no sign of Tilly anywhere, leaving Oswald very upset at the possibility of no return.

Then on the morning of June 8, at the Potter family farm in Rathrdrum the three brothers noticed something odd in one of their pastures, a reddish brown, bobtailed dog racing around herding their sheep, Oswald commented. Initially mistaking the dog for one of their Australian shepherds named Hooey thinking it just looked unusual on this day with a darker than usual coat, they called out but soon realised something more was at play when the dog did not respond and put its ears back while running off.

Zane Potter knew something was off. He examined the coat and realised this was not Hooey's coat.

It was Tilly.

One of the Potter brothers was aware of the car crash that took place near the farm and had seen the now viral Facebook post of Tilly missing, even being informed by their Grandmother, who lives in California about the missing dog! Potter left a comment on a News Channel's Facebook post that Tilly was on their farm. "Tilly is on our property right now! The sheep farm off Meyer and Emmanuel", wrote Potter.

Some minutes later he updated it that a Kootenai County Sheriff's Sheriff had picked him up while also searching, driving by the farm and recognizing it must be Tilly.

"A deputy had been driving by looking for Tilly at the same time Travis spotted him", Linda commented, explaining how they handed the dog over to him in a lucky way.

The Potters are no strangers to noteworthy happenings on their farm, having had two helicopters land in the past, one for rescue someone critically injured in a nearby crash and another heli having to land after catching on fire.

"It's not like we don't see crazy things happening all the time", Travis Potter stated. Both the Potters and the Oswald's believe Tilly was just drawn to their farm and the sheep, bringing out his built in herding habits which make him quite a character in general even when sheep aren't involved.

As soon as the Oswalds heard Tilly was found, Mike Oswald raced off to pick him up.

“As soon he came home, I ran out to give Tilly a hug, but he wasn’t having it,” Linda Oswald said, adding that Tilly was unharmed in the accident. “I think he was a little mad that he’d been left on the prairie for 48 hours."

And then Tilly did what any dog would do after a stressful two days on his own

"He ran straight inside the house and started drinking water from the toilet, which he’s never done.” Oswald said.

Photo shared by Linda Oswald

Travis Potter said he got a call the morning his brother found Tilly. Some of the family’s sheep had gotten out of the fenced-in pasture and were near the road.

Tilly probably chased the sheep out; Since he was very young, Tilly nipped at the heels of other animals, children and adults and tried to round them up.

“I think that dog was trying to herd,” Travis said, Oswald noting she is sure of Tilly trying to herd, hilariously pointing out "he'll herd anything". “Whenever my two grandkids come over, he will push them and nip at their heels, trying to get them together,” said Oswald. “And at the dog park I take him to, he always tries to herd people together as a group.”

Border collies take naturally to herding because they were originally bred for that purpose, according to the Border Collie Society of America. Tilly's family are well aware he has been a real herder ever since he was a pupper.

Photo shared by Linda Oswald

Tilly’s herding instinct can be a little embarrassing sometimes, Linda explained, noting that she often has to explain to people that Tilly isn’t trying to hurt them when he nips at their heels.

While it isn’t known where Tilly was before he was spotted on the sheep farm, Oswald said she believes he was making his way home after the car accident and became distracted.

“He saw all those sheep and just wanted to go to work,” she said.

After she was reunited with Tilly and posted an update on Facebook that he’d been found, locals who had been searching for him chimed in:

“This just made my day! Yay, Tilly!” wrote a college student from Moscow, Idaho.

Photo shared by Linda Oswald

Oswald thinks the pandemic, and all the social isolation it has caused, is part of the reason so many people were willing to pitch in.

“All of a sudden, I think people saw a time to really jump out and help, even if it was just a small thing like finding a dog,” Oswald said. “There’s a lot of kind people out there.”

This lead Tilly the dog to find his dream job in a miraculous way , and he did not even need to apply for the position!