Can't keep a good mining buddy down
January 7, 2014
By Gary Regehr
Bonners Ferry Back When

Ruger has been traipsing the back country of Boundary County with Gary Regehr since he was a little pup.
Well, he’s back. I don’t know if this should be in Bonners Ferry Back When or not, but since it’s about my mining buddy, I’ll post it here. In case nobody noticed he hasn’t been going with me for the last three or four months.

When I first started taking him with me to look for old mines, Ruger wouldn’t leave my shoe and would howl if I didn’t give him enough light. It has now changed.

Three or four months ago, he was ran over by a pickup at my mill.

Didn’t break anything, but he was real sore.

Then a few weeks later he bounced out of my buggy doing about 30 miles per hour.

Another couple of weeks of being sore, and he was back in the saddle when one night my wife was coming home and she ran over him, breaking his pelvis. Two months later he’s raring to go, but extremely cautious of anything that moves, including a broom.

We went looking for a mine and as I was taking a picture of the entrance when I heard a terrible commotion inside the shaft.

Well, my buddy took it upon himself to roar in ahead of me with no light and fell down a 30-foot hole in the shaft floor. I get to him and shine a light down at him and he’s just standing there waiting for someone to get him out.

I very carefully work my way down to him and lift him up a little above my head and lean him against the shaft wall on a little shelf and yell at him to stay. I work my way up to him and brace my feet against the wall and lift him up again and again and then the last time I lift him up and push him towards the top of hole he evidently can see a light at the end of tunnel, and without any consideration of his rescuer, he proceeds to spin and claw his way to the top, spinning dirt, rocks and rat crap all over my head and neck.

Then he turns around and laughs at me (ok barks at me).

We finally get out and we go our merry way.

Not sure what the name of the mine is, so we’ll just call it the Tough Dog. It may sound like I’m making light of my buddy getting hurt, but I will go to any length to try and protect him. Someday I will tell you about going up to the continental Mine and rescuing my grandkids' dog that fell though a hole between the tracks, and I didn’t even like the mutt.