Pictured are Jeremy Praska, left, Freeway, and Greg Andreen, right. Photo submitted by Jeremy Praska.
For a large portion of winter, an elusive interstate vagabond was spotted by countless community members roaming the fields and ditches between Highway 17 in Grafton and along I-29 near Drayton. After months of adventure and hardship, the stray German Shepherd, now fittingly named ‘Freeway’, has found a freeway to freedom from a life of fear, hunger, and pain.
On Jan. 13, Jeremy Praska and his daughter were headed to Grand Forks when his daughter spotted a dog. A few years prior, Praska said he and his daughter narrowly avoided hitting a stray dog and, instead, loaded the pup into the vehicle to take it to safety. Praska hoped this dog would do the same; instead, the German Shepherd would lead Praska and numerous others on quite the chase spanning months.
“When I found out that he'd been out there for months at that point already, I was like - yeah, I don't want to give up on him at all,” stated Praska. “I just really didn't want him out there in the country running around like he was. I just knew there was a better situation for him.”
As Praska and others would later find out, getting Freeway to a better situation would take some tenacity.
“He's a smart dog - there’s no doubt about that,” said Greg Andreen of Grafton, who would later team up with Praska to get Freeway to safety.
Andreen’s daughter is also the family member who spotted Freeway first, right along Highway 17 where Praska’s daughter first spotted him. Greg’s daughter immediately called her father to report her sighting, as the family has a German Shepherd who looks much like Freeway. Andreen returned several times to that location on Highway 17 to look after hearing about numerous sightings from fellow residents. He also called the Highway Department to ask them to call him if they spotted the dog.
“Everybody I talked to, I said, ‘if you see a dog over there, you call me, and I’ll come over right away,’” said Andreen.
Soon, Andreen saw a post someone had shared from Praska on Facebook, detailing his own search for the stray dog wandering Highway 17.
“I reached out to Jeremy because both of us were doing the same work to do the same job. So let's all team up,” explained Andreen. “He [Praska] got a trap from Grand Forks Circle of Friends, and that one, it didn't work he's just too big of a dog.”
So Andreen went about building a custom live trap. He was happy to do so, recalling how his grandfather had taught him how to make live traps as a boy for catching racoons and other critters. It would take three models and certainly test his engineering skills, but Andreen was eventually successful.
The team was worried for a period after going a couple weeks without seeing the dog. They knew he had been out for around four months at this point and feared the worst due to his prolonged exposure. Turns out, Freeway just wanted a change of scenery and decided to call rural Drayton his new ‘home.’
“Once he made it to Drayton, we heard that he was going into somebody's dog kennel and eating their food. So I thought, well, if you're going to go in a kennel, then I will build one that looks like a kennel,” explained Andreen.
The first one didn’t work, neither did the second attempt; but Andreen nor Praska would give up.
“[I] Just kept resetting it and modifying the trap to try to make it better as we go,” said Andreen. “And yeah, finally got the little fella.”
The men were grateful for Rhonda Helm Sylskar, who allowed them to use her yard as a place for the trap. She would offer tasty treats such as pork chops to the kennel to entice Freeway, and it finally worked.
“She was awesome,” said Andreen. “It's really nice to have help and people willing to have other people tramping through their yards at all hours of the dang night!”
The men had been seeing blood dappled into Freeway’s tracks for at least a month before his capture. Knowing there would be vet bills in his future, the community banded together with Lauren Votava, raising enough money for Freeway’s full care before he was even captured.
“She works for the vet clinic in Edinburg, and so she said as soon as you guys get him, let me know, because he's got veterinary care lined up,” said Praska. “So there were a lot of things already in place for once we did get him.”
Since receiving treatment at Dakota Animal Care, Freeway’s paw, thought to have been caught in a bear trap, is healing well. He is currently staying at the Animal Elskan Inn until he finds his forever home. Praska and Andreen are both deeply grateful for the care Sheila Hannesson has been providing care to Freeway at the Elskan Inn.
“It is heartwarming, it really is, that everybody is so touched by it, and hopefully it brings a little more awareness to the work that rescues are doing,” said Andreen.
Andreen and Praska were both surprised to realize that once caught, Freeway immediately turned into a friendly house dog. They both admitted it was an “emotional day” when he was finally caught, and they were able to meet their pal up close.
“I was just shocked that I got a leash on him and put him in my pickup, and he was just like he was a regular old family dog at that point,” said Andreen. “I can't imagine that there would be any problem adopting him out because he was so calm, and his demeanor was unbelievable for being out on the run for months.”
Andreen nor Praska realized they would turn into small town celebrities after the ordeal.
“We didn't do it for any notoriety or recognition or anything. We both just love animals,” Andreen simply stated. For Praska, Freeway’s journey is a metaphor for life.
“I've dealt with some personal things in my past where, it's like, all I needed was one or two people to just kind of be there,” he stated. “Greg and I, we talked today. We both feel a connection to this dog. For me, I just can relate to feeling like you need somebody that isn't going to give up on you, you know?”