‘Miracle dog’ survives month in Colorado wilderness, like lessons of old Hilton Head

Life’s greatest lessons can come in the tiniest packages.

Ours comes from Bella, a fluffy little white ball of a dog.

The 10-month-old, 8-pound cockapoo survived a month in the rugged Colorado wilderness this summer.

The Aspen Times headline christened Jim and Betsy Chaffin’s puppy a “miracle dog.”

For the Chaffins, residents of Spring Island, between Hilton Head Island and Beaufort, it’s a strange, grueling — but true — story.

It takes Jim Chaffin back to his days of working with Charles Fraser as senior vice president of marketing and sales at Sea Pines in the boom-or-bust days of 1968 to 1978.

That’s when Fraser taught his team that when you’re knocked down nine times, you get up 10.

Bella cannot tell her story of survival. She was surely knocked down among the coyotes, bears, mountain lions, eagles and hungry foxes in the 180,000-acre Maroon Bell-Snowmass Wilderness near Snowmass Village, where the Chaffins live in the summer.

They know only one thing for sure.

“Bella never gave up,” said Betsy Chaffin.

When Bella was found by a ranch worker, with two porcupine quills jabbed through her matted hair, she was down to 4 pounds.

SNOWMASS

Bella disappeared as the Chaffins were hiking with extended family on the Capitol Creek Trail, headed up to Capitol Lake.

Hiking is a favorite thing for people to do in Colorado, where Jim Chaffin and partner Jim Light took their lessons from Fraser in 1978, developing the Snowmass Club and West Village areas around Snowmass Village.

Bella was with one of their grandchildren ahead of the pack on the trail. When she turned back to walk with the others, no one questioned it. But when the group met up, Bella was missing.

That was June 17.

They searched and hollered throughout the area, going home with a sick feeling.

“You feel such a responsibility,” Jim Chaffin said last week as they prepared for a low-key outdoor party for the friends and strangers who helped search for Bella.

“These little dogs have accepted you as their protector, and all of a sudden, you have let this happen to her.”

On the next day’s search, they saw two bears, but no Bella. The following day, they saw only one bear. On Day 3, they found themselves 30 yards from a stealthy and healthy-looking coyote. But no Bella.

On the 10th day, friends spotted Bella, but she ran from them.

That brought new energy to the search.

ReRe Baker, the area’s longtime animal safety officer, told the Chaffins, “If she has survived the first 10 days, this dog has an enormous will to live.”

SEA PINES

They put up posters, called vets and groomers, told the radio station, and even had two sessions with an “animal communicator” who had made a psychic link to help find another dog lost in the vast valley.

They put piles of their clothes and some of Bella’s toys in the area, hoping it would attract her.

They were astounded by the outpouring of help from the community, many of them total strangers.

ReRe Baker ended up suggesting that Bella may have walked the creek down into the valley, and asked if they’d put up posters there.

That’s where Osario Ochoa, a worker on the Nicholson Creek Ranch, spotted Bella by the side of a road. At first, she growled and ran, but his second effort of sweet talk worked, and Bella got home on July 17.

She was nine miles from where she first went off the trail.

But Jim Chaffin said the issue is more the ruggedness of the terrain than the distance.

She had plenty of water from the creek, and it rained several days while Bella was lost. They surmise she ate grass, cow pies and maybe insects.

Bella is back up to 5 1/2 pounds now, and can jump up on the sofa again.

As the Chaffins watch the tiny dog regain her energy, they’re strengthened by something else in her silent story.

Chaffin and Jim Light — who was president of Sea Pines after coming through Phillips Exeter Academy, the University of North Carolina as a Morehead Scholar, and earning an MBA from Harvard — have hit bumps in the road where it looks like you should quit, long after Sea Pines, and long after developing Spring Island locally.

“We thought 1974-75-76 was tough,” Chaffin said. “But we called on all of our Sea Pines experience with Charles and our teammates to help us get through the horrible recession of 2008-2009.”

Betsy Chaffin, known here as an artist, has already written down some thoughts for her grandchildren.

“I have told them that they will face some hard times, because we all do,” she said. “I told them that when that happens, to just think of Bella. She was lost for a month in the wilderness, but she never gave up.

“Never, ever give up.”

David Lauderdale may be reached at LauderdaleColumn@gmail.com.