By After soaking in the view at the top of Table Rock Mountain, Tia Vargas, who had been hiking ahead of her 66-year-old dad, Ted Kasper, turned back down the trail to meet up with him.
She stopped in her tracks when she came upon a couple standing by a limping spaniel.
“Oh my God—is he okay?” asked the Idaho Falls single mom of three.
“He came out of the woods. We’re hoping to find his owner,” said the man. But Tia knew instantly the pup was in no shape to climb or walk.
“Let me take him down to the trailhead,” she offered.
After giving the dog water, Tia got down on her belly and wriggled her head under his 60-pound body. “Easy, boy,” she soothed as she grabbed his legs and lifted. Thank you, the pup’s weary eyes seemed to say.
Tia’s dad was surprised to see her with a dog stretched across her shoulders as they met on the trail, but Tia kept going.
The 71⁄2-mile walk on the muddy trail took all of her strength to navigate. But as they walked, Tia thought of her eldest son, Porter, who was at a wellness camp battling depression. “This must be what it’s like for Porter to feel the weight of the world on his shoulders,” Tia told Ted as each step felt more impossible than the last.
I can’t do this anymore, Tia thought as she stopped for a break another mile down the trail. Just then, the pup crawled into her lap, signaling that he felt safe with her. Tia gasped with tears streaming down her face and sent up a prayer, “Lord, you’ve got to help me.”
She lifted the dog onto her shoulders again, and a few steps later, she stopped and turned. It felt as if someone had come up behind her and was boosting the pup up off her shoulders. But there was no one there.
“Thank you, God,” she all but burst into tears and began carrying her suddenly lightened load the last mile down to the start of the trailhead.
But with no tag to identify the dog, all Tia and Ted knew was that he needed to see a vet. “They’ll take good care of you,” Tia promised, and gave him a pat as she left him the vet’s care.
But that night, Tia tossed and turned, and in the middle of the night she sat bolt upright. “God sent this pup to me—he’s supposed to be my dog!” she suddenly realized.
The next day, Tia returned to the vet to pick up the dog, called Boomer. She also found out he needed surgery, and it would cost $7,000. But when Tia’s story got out on social media, it went viral and donations from those who had been touched by her strength and bravery began pouring in—enough to cover the pup’s surgery.
The night Tia brought Boomer home, she wrote Porter at camp sharing what had happened and how it had helped her understand what he was going through. When Porter came home, he gave his mom a hug, then sat on the floor with Boomer. “He is injured, and so am I, but we’re going to heal together,” Porter said, and they both did just that.
“God put me in the right place at the right time,” says Tia. “It was meant to be.”
