"He growled at us at first ..."

Vanessa Keating, Theresa Burge and Aubrey Metropulos, a group of full-time RVers and Vanlifers, were wandering around Bulldog Canyon in Arizona one day, looking for a specific type of cactus. They weren’t far from their campsite when they spotted someone tiny and furry, and quickly realized it was a dog out in the desert all alone.

They immediately knew they couldn’t leave the pup out there by himself and began the process of trying to win him over. Thankfully, it didn’t end up taking very long. The sweet dog was more than ready to be rescued.

“He growled at us at first and took some convincing to come over,” Keating told The Dodo. “It only took a few minutes for him to come up to my sister, Theresa, first, but he was still nervous. We quickly realized he had a cholla cactus stuck to the side of him, and once she pulled it off, he warmed up and got excited. So many kisses, and he even had the zoomies!”

Once the cactus was safely removed from his fur, the lost dog felt so much better and jumped for joy that he’d finally be found. His new friends gave him all the cuddles he’d been missing and started asking around their campsite about him, trying to find his family. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any luck, but they refused to stop trying.

The next day, they took the lost dog to get scanned for a microchip and were overjoyed when they discovered he had one. They got in touch with his dad, who told them the pup’s name was Echo, and quickly made arrangements for a long-awaited reunion.

“The reunion was amazing,” Keating said. “Lots of tears. He thought Echo had been eaten by a coyote and was giving up hope … He was so grateful and relieved.”

Echo had only been lost in the desert for a few days before he was found, thankfully, and he was so excited once he was back in his dad’s arms. He knew once the three women found him that they would be the ones to get him back home safely, and he was right.

Photo Source: VANESSA KEATING