Tinker Tales - Sharing Tinker The Chow Chows Life
Chapter 3

It was just any other ordinary night. Feed Tinker, eat our dinners together, watch some TV and take his royal highness out on his walk. At the time we lived in a standard track home that happened to be at the end of the street. It sat next to a fairly busy 4 lane road. I kept my Kenworth parked next to the house because there was so much room.

I remember Tinker causing a commotion and barking in the middle of the night but I had yet to understand that when he barks, I need to go investigate because something is wrong. I remember lying in bed thinking it’s probably a cat or something. When we got up the next morning to begin our day, Tinker was gone. We checked all over inside and out. In the backyard, I found where he had busted a ½ inch thick redwood plank to get out of a very secured yard. I also found the cause of what he was barking at. Some little bastards had spray painted gang junk on the side of my rig and Tinker must have gone crazy trying to protect it.

Fear and panic set in. We began calling friends to come assist in the search. What a horrible, terrible, helpless feeling. Where is he? What happened? Why didn’t I just get my lazy arse out of bed? Did those people take him? We had our friends searching in their cars, Michelle was frantic. I tried searching in my car but something inside told me I needed to be home to coordinate the search. A few hours went by when I got an idea. We had just turned a spare bedroom into an office for me. I had a 4 foot by 8 foot sheet of white paneling left over. I spray painted onto it, in giant letters….LOST – BLONDE CHOW - $1000.00 REWARD I grabbed the cordless phone (everyone and their mom didn’t have cell phones back then) and took my sign into the middle of the busy 4 lane road. I held the sign up and faced it towards every car coming and going. A few people even stopped to ask what he looked like. Michelle ended up bringing me a picture of him to show people. Slowly, friends had other things they needed to do. It was so generous of them to even come out in the numbers they did, especially on a workday. One by one my chances of finding my little buddy by search party dwindled. As did my hope. I remember praying to God, over and over. Asking Him to help us, to protect Tinker. To bring him home safe to us. I stayed out in the middle of that street hour, after hour, after hour, holding up that big sign. My arms were so tired but somehow I thought my suffering would warrant God’s help. Michelle kept driving around in her car.

It was probably about 5pm when 2 young boys came to see what the idiot with the giant sign in the middle of the street was doing. I showed them Tinker’s picture and told them I’d really give them all that money if they found him. Boy, did their enthusiasm lift my spirits. They took off on their bikes and every 30 minutes or so would come back and ask…”hey Mister, did you find him yet?”. It was getting late. Sadness had taken a strangle hold on Michelle and I. She was crying and it was so hard for me to try to be optimistic and strong for her. It was almost dark and I was still out in the middle of the street, showing my sign to the same folks who were now returning home from their days at work. Some stopped to ask, have you been out here ALL DAY? Yes, I said, he’s our son.

Just as darkness fell one of the boys on the bicycles came riding down the street as fast as he could peddle yelling, Mister, Mister, I think we found him. I screamed at the top of my lungs for Michelle. The boy was so excited, it was hard for me to understand him. I could make out, to some effect, that they had found a dog looking like my picture but that the dog wouldn’t come to them, so his friend stayed there to keep an eye on him. From his explanation of the location, it was several miles away. Michelle and the little boy jumped into her car and off they roared. I stayed in the middle of the street with my sign. 15 minutes later, I see Michelle’s car round the corner about a half mile up the road. And I could see, right there in the middle of the front seat was the great big blonde-haired, purple tongued face I had been praying for. I dropped to my knees and started sobbing. Crying out praise to God for answering our prayer. As I sit here writing this my eyes still fill with happy tears. Tinker was thirsty but none the worse for wear. I was so mad and happy at the same time. Thank you God!

Now, I faced another problem. These two God sent kids. I can’t give them a thousand bucks in cash! I told them to go get their parents and come back. Now try to imagine if your kid came home telling you that he needs you to come with him to get $1000 dollars from some guy whose dog they found. Minutes later I have 2 sets of parents on my front porch astonished that someone would offer that much for a dog. I gave them the cash. Best money I’ve ever spent. I told them, it’s not a dog…..it’s our chow chow, TINKER.