A woman, her son and their two dogs have been living in an SUV on the edge of a dirt road off another dirt road over some tracks somewhere in the Delta south of Greenwood, eating canned sardines for breakfast, trying to make a fire in the rain with nothing to block a strong wind whipping over an empty farm field and relying on the kindness of strangers for their Christmas dinner.
That’s a pretty desperate situation any time of year, but especially over the holidays. And when you consider that they could get in the truck and drive about 70 miles to a nice house in Madison where the woman’s other five children and husband are celebrating Christmas without them, it becomes a question as to whether the pair are in denial of the inevitable or believe their love for a dog will pull everyone through.
Christa Boyd and her son, Braden Boykin, are desperately seeking Scout, a 2-year-old female Boykin spaniel missing since Dec. 7 when Boykin and three friends went duck hunting in the Mathews Brake National Wildlife Refuge between Cruger and Sidon.
Standing at the back of the truck Wednesday morning, Boykin said he and a friend had Scout in their boat as they were setting out decoys. The friend had forgotten his duck call in the truck, and they went to a boat ramp to retrieve it. That’s when he noticed Scout was gone, and the duck hunting trip turned into a dog search.
“It’s been 18 days since she’s been gone. Oh, 19,” Boykin said. “I’ve probably been out here for two weeks of that time looking for her.”
How long will he stay?
“Until I find her,” he said quickly.
Boykin admits feeling responsible for the dog being gone. “Oh, yeah. I want to stay out here because she’s like a child to me,” he said.
The pair are in a spot miles from Mathews Brake, led to the area by a man and his dog who work as finders of lost pets. They’ve been in the spot since Sunday. A grainy trail cam photo from early Christmas morning of what could be a dog nibbling on some kibble along a dirt road has encouraged them to stay and wait.
“We didn’t really come prepared to stay,” Boyd said. “We came out here and thought she’s going to walk out of the woods.”
They’ve received help and support from the people of Greenwood, Sidon and Cruger, motivated by one thing or another.
A posted $5,000 reward, put up by a friend who wants to be anonymous, has brought all numbers of people to Mathews Brake.
“A lot of people have been driving around hollering her name,” Boyd said.
The holiday season, a love for animals, and kindness and compassion for their fellow human beings have brought volunteers offering everything, Boyd said. Christmas dinner came from a young couple in Sidon: ham, dressing, mac and cheese, deviled eggs and corn salad.
The tracker has gone back to his real life but left behind his trail cam and a humane trap, set up along a road to nowhere that carries paw prints among the deer hooves. The tracking dog and Boyd and Boykin believe the paw prints belong to Scout.
To help attract the missing dog to the spot, Boyd has set up “a stinky cup,” a can of tuna upended into a red Solo cup, along with a portable charcoal grill that slow cooked a pan of bacon, a steak, four hotdogs and a can of dog food.
Boyd has a hard time explaining how the mishap at Mathews Brake boat ramp has brought them so far away, near a creek that would lead back to the boat ramp area where Scout first went missing, but more than 10 miles away. The paw prints and grainy photo keep her encouraged but also realistic.
“It would be miraculous for all of these things to work out,” she said. “I told him first day I wouldn’t stop till we found her. ... I don’t really intend to leave if there’s a chance.”
Boyd was discouraged by the coyotes that moved through a field near their truck Tuesday night, as well as the alligators she saw when paddling around Mathews Brake earlier this month searching for Scout.
“It’s the Delta,” she said. “There’s gators and coyotes and everything out here.”
• Contact Gavin Maliska at 581-7235 or gmaliska@gwcommonwealth.com.
