A dog named Pepper was found along a trail after being missing for seven days in the area known as the La Center Bottoms.
Pepper’s return to her owner was both incredible and heartwarming.
A duo of horseback riders, Elin Allen and Jenn Maphet, found Pepper near the East Fork Lewis River after what Maphet said was divine intervention. A series of chance decisions on their trail ride led the two right to Pepper walking toward them all alone, submitting to a dog they had with them. At that moment, Maphet said Allen immediately knew based on behavior that this was a missing dog.
Pepper’s owner, Meika Pechin, found out her dog went missing after being left outside. Pechin next did just about all she could to find Pepper, her Australian shepherd that means the world to her. Pepper is a quirky dog, and is also epileptic and requires medication.
“We couldn’t find her anywhere,” Pechin said. “We searched the entire day. We talked to all the neighbors, drove everywhere. We live on 5 acres, and all of our neighbors have at least 5 acres or more. So there’s plenty of places she could have hidden.”
Pechin rode her quad everywhere in hopes that Pepper would recognize the sound and chase after it like she always did. Pechin joined numerous Facebook groups for missing dogs in the Clark County area. She even bought and installed trail cameras after finding evidence that may have been left behind by Pepper.
It was the longest seven days for any dog owner. Pechin has had Pepper for six years after buying her as an eight-week old puppy.
“I’m pretty sure I have an ulcer now because of that week,” she said. “I was having stomach pains. It just was awful. I couldn’t focus on anything. My kids are my dogs and my horses, and I just, I’ve never lost an animal before like that. So I didn’t know what to do. So I did everything I absolutely could.”
Pechin also said she was heavily supported by Kimber Hysell at Waggin’ Tails Search and Rescue, a Portland area nonprofit.
“She was almost like a family member who was also super worried about Pepper,” Pechin said.
But on day seven, Pechin left for her regular chiropractor visit.
On Friday, Oct. 10, Maphet and Allen departed on horseback for their trail ride after they had delayed their ride as the two opted to wait out the rain. Maphet said they then decided to do something different and ride their horses in an area they haven’t been to in a long time as it has been closed and just opened back up.
“Then we decide we’re going to go up and look at a cabin that we haven’t seen in a while,” Maphet said. “Again, something that takes a little extra time that we weren't planning on doing, and then on the way back, Joey, Elin (Allen’s) dog, we wanted to make sure he wasn’t thirsty before we headed up. We were going to go up to the cemetery and we like to canter up the hill, and so wanted to make sure he wasn’t thirsty before we ran up the hill, and so we stopped to get him water.”
As Allen and Maphet were sitting there waiting for Joey to drink some water, Pepper came around the corner all alone.
“We see dogs down there all the time with their owners, either they’re on bikes or hiking or jogging,” Maphet said, adding that it could have been a dog named Faith from the stable barn, but the dog was too large. “She starts crawling in and just being super submissive to Joey just very like, crawling, and then rolls over on her back. So as soon as they meet and we know that there’s not going to be any big kerfuffle, Elin (Allen) goes over and grabs the collar and I walk out to make sure there’s no owner.”
Maphet added that after it was clear this dog, wet and muddy, was all alone, Maphet made the call as Pepper’s collar included her name and Pechin’s phone number.
At this point, Pechin was near her chiropractor, waiting to make a left turn.
“I called and asked if she had a dog named Pepper and through her tears she said, ‘yes,’ and I said, ‘Are you missing a dog named Pepper?’” Maphet recalled.
Maphet walked Pepper and her horse while Allen led the way to the meeting point.
Pechin let her chiropractor know she was unable to make it in. She added that her chiropractor understood.
“I just, I lost it, I guess,” Pechin emotionally recalled the moment she was reunited withPepper. “I just wanted to make sure she was OK and get her home. Now I’m over-paranoid about her being outside. But I was just on cloud nine and I stayed with her. I didn’t want to leave her for the whole night and the next day. I didn’t want to leave her.”
Pepper was a muddy mess, though. Pechin laughed about how many times it took with the shower head to wash all the mud off.
“It was the most heartwarming, awesome thing,” Maphet said of the reunion between dog and owner. “It just felt good to be able to do something like that and not even knowing that she was missing and then to be able to be a part of it, I just was so happy. … It was just really special to be able to be a part of that.”
Maphet’s husband, Andrue, felt the occasion was important to highlight and hopefully brighten some people’s days. And it sure did as his post in the Battle Ground, WA Facebook group garnered over 1,000 reactions and over 120 comments in less than a week’s time.
A lot of people knew of Pepper missing thanks to Pechin’s social media efforts over the seven days of her disappearance. A lot of citizens of the Battle Ground area rejoiced that Pepper had found her way back to her owner thanks to Maphet and Allen.
As Pepper is epileptic, a lot of commenters referred to her as the “seizure dog” — and they couldn’t be happier to hear a happy ending.
“Everything was orchestrated perfectly,” Maphet said of the experience. “God just laid it out.”
