A pet is often a loyal and treasured companion for many drivers who spend long hours at a time on the road.
Truck driver Michael Siau and his 9-month-old yorkie named Rambo were on their way to North Dakota, when Siau stopped at a Hannibal, Missouri rest stop so he could stretch his legs. He didn’t notice that Rambo had slipped out of the cab.
After stretching his legs, Siau hopped back in his truck and started back off down the road. When he reached Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Siau noticed Rambo wasn’t in the cab.
He thought Rambo had been sleeping in the bunk throughout the trip.
Sobbing and in a panic, Siau began mentally retracing his steps. After two days of calling the police department in the wrong town, it dawned on him that Rambo must have slipped out of his truck in Hannibal. He promptly called the town’s animal control department and told them he was looking for his missing companion.
Hannibal Animal Control Officer Tim Ledbetter went to the rest area and found little Rambo patiently awaiting his owner’s return.
In about 60 seconds, he would have been gone, Ledbetter told Siau in the lobby of the Hannibal Police Department.
“As it turned out, a family saw Rambo at the rest stop had hopes of taking the unidentified K-9 home. But Ledbetter arrived just in time, telling the family the dog was left behind by a trucker passing through,” the Hannibal Courier-Post reported.
Siau made his way back to Hannibal to retrieve his companion. He couldn’t get his rig through the town’s streets, so an employee of the Hannibal Courier-Post picked up Siau and gave him a ride to the Hannibal Police Department, where the two were reunited.
Siau told the Courier-Post that from that point on, he would check to make sure Rambo is in the rig before heading out.