For a trucker like Michael Siau, spending weeks on the open road can be lonely. For Siau, a nine-month-old Yorkshire Terrier named Rambo is his copilot and best friend.
When Siau brought Rambo along for a routine haul to North Dakota, things started off normal enough, but then Siau pulled off the road and made a pit stop in Hannibal, Mo.
Siau parked the truck and left Rambo inside while he stepped out to stretch his legs. Unbeknownst to him, his Yorkshire Terrier had the same idea, slipping out of the truck quietly while Siau wasn’t looking.
“Didn’t even cross my mind that he might jump out,” Siau explains. “He never has before.”
After a few minutes had passed, Siau hopped back into the driver’s seat, completely unaware that Rambo had jumped ship moments before. When he pulled away from the truck stop, Siau assumed that Rambo was fast asleep in the back of the cab.
As Siau pulled onto the interstate en route to North Dakota, he had no clue that little Rambo was stranded back in Hannibal. It wasn’t until 170 miles later when making his next stop in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, that Siau realized the unthinkable: Rambo was missing in action.
Siau searched his truck frantically for Rambo, completely panicked. After his last dog, Ollie, was killed by a car, Siau couldn’t bear the thought that he might lose Rambo, too.
That’s when it clicked. Siau knew that the only logical place he and Rambo could have been separated was back at the Hannibal truck stop. He had figured out Rambo’s likely location, but Siau had one big problem: because his truck runs on a timer, he must stick to an extremely tight schedule. Making the trip back to Hannibal to find Rambo would have cost him his job.
Out of options, Siau contacted the local police department, who promised to call back when they had word of the Yorkie’s whereabouts. Two excruciating days passed with no news of Rambo.
“I was in tears, sobbing,” Siau remembers of his phone call to the police. He was desperate to know that his buddy was okay.
When he got a hold of the Hannibal Animal Control, the unit promised to send an officer to the rest stop where Rambo was last seen. Lo and behold, Officer Tim Ledbetter found a relieved Rambo at that truck stop a few hours later, “just sitting there patiently” for Siau’s return, Ledbetter describes.
Siau was over the moon when he got word that Rambo was safe. Unable to drive the company truck back to Hannibal, however, Siau had no way of getting back to Rambo. When the Hannibal Courier-Post got wind of Siau’s situation, they contacted a GateHouse Media delivery truck, and soon Siau was en route to reunite with his beloved Yorkie pup at the Northeast Missouri Humane Society.
When Rambo heard his dad calling his name, the Yorkie ran to Siau and covered his face with kisses.
“You’ve never been this excited,” Siau said to Rambo as he wrapped the little dog in a huge hug.
The happy pair of road warriors – one very relieved trucker and his canine copilot, Rambo – are now back on the open road, hauling a load to Tennessee.
