Dog News

Skittles – Corgi Extraordinaire

by ADMIN

Life With Dogs is reader-supported. We may earn a small commission through products purchased using links on this page.
502332e5cc4cf.preview 6201
Skittles helped neighbors find his owner in the woods.

Skittles, a red and white Welshi Corgi, wise beyond her short 5 years, is a hero in Nemo, SD. Skittles and her master, Jim Fettig, were always together…chopping wood and just hanging out together. Skittles and Jim were in the woods when a tree fell on Jim, killing him. Skittles stayed with her Dad until she figured out that she needed to go get help. “She’s a hero,” Marley Pearson of Nemo said. “She never left him. That’s what clued us in that something was wrong.”

Skittles showed up at an intersection about 8 miles from Nemo, tipping off Jim’s friends that something wasn’t quite right. They tried calling him and got no response. They checked his house and found everything locked up tight. A Texas couple, motorcycling through the area, dropped Skittles off at the Pearson’s, and Skittles looked no worse for the wear. “She’s a tank,” Jerry Pearson said. Jim was still nowhere to be found but the Pearsons  assumed he would be back soon.

A few days later, Skittles was wandering around the pasture, something she usually did while Jim was splitting firewood. By this time, Marley Pearson knew something was wrong so she called Jim’s daughter. A short time later, Jim’s body was found. Chief Deputy Sheriff Joe Harmon gives Skittles credit for “her persistence in putting everyone on notice that something wasn’t right,” Harmon said. “She was out there looking for help.”

“I know she stayed with Jim for a long time,” said Greg Napstad, assistant chief of the Nemo Volunteer Fire Department. For such a short-legged little girl, she braved the woods, despite the danger of predators, to get help for her Dad.

Skittles is staying with the Pearsons temporarily. Some days Skittles is a happy girl, greeting visitors in her own special way and just being a Corgi.  Other days, Skittles sits quietly by the door, waiting…