Give Freeway a Second Chance at Life

Freeways Story

At the end of February when our beloved Salty (a blue female ACD that is still missing) had been lost for 4 weeks, and calls where coming in like crazy. Salty disappeared January 31st 2025 and because her story has garnered so much interest, it has led us to being called on pretty much any/all ACD’s being found or spotted in a large radius. This meant that once we caught word of an ACD spotted on the center divide of 780 freeway between Benicia and Vallejo and shared flyers in the area we became the dog’s best hope. As our search posters began to reach the eyes of the locals in that area so many concerned citizens called us, hoping like crazy that it was Salty but also fearing for this strange dog that they could tell was in quite a predicament.

During the first few weeks of Salty’s disappearance, I posted some info given to me by an animal communicator in hopes that if something sounded familiar to the community, maybe it would lead to Salty being found. I received a call from Sheriff Dept/Animal Care officer Kristina Bradley, who was off duty and has some location ideas that she wanted to check and wanted more information that could help us find Salty. For the next week we communicated regularly and Kristina was able to help us by searching in areas we did not have access to. Her support and willingness to help find Salty speaks VOLUMES about her character and her passion for helping animals in need, and I am forever grateful that she reached out.

I was 400 miles away at a herding trial in Chino Ca when the call started pouring in about the dog on the freeway, and hope was sparked that our search was over. The dog was not in a place where it could be easily removed, or even positively identified as Salty. There are miles of oleanders on that divide that take up the whole space only leaving two or three open spaces for the dog to be spotted and each space was no longer then 20’ before another mile of oleanders. The location did not even have safe space to pull over and try to help the dog if anyone wanted to try, and people did try but the dog disappeared into the vast expanse of the oleanders unable to be seen.

After sending my family and friends immediately to go assess the situation and see if it was Salty it was clear this was not going to go smoothly without assistance. I immediately called Kristina to see what we could do to solve the problem. She was able to access the system to see if it had been called in prior to that day and we discovered that prior to us catching wind of the ACD on the freeway and canvasing the area that people had been calling the CHP for 10 consecutive days with the CHP going out to try to find the dog but the dog evading their search each time.

My husband Pete, who was with me in Chino but had ridden down on his motorcycle, decided to cut his trip short and volunteered to go stakeout the freeway to see if it was Salty and made the journey home. Pete spent hours waiting to spot the dog from the bridge that crosses the 780 right over the open spaces. He was also unable to locate or identify the dog and decided to go get some coffee. He had only been gone for 20 minutes when the calls started again about the dog being spotted and I got ahold of Pete and sent him back to look again. This time was successful and with the joy of that success also came the disappointment and realization that the dog on the freeway was not our precious Salty.

I began the long drive home from Chino with a heavy heart. Salty is still gone and it is eating me alive, and now I am really worried for the dog that has spent at least 10 days in the poisonous oleanders trying to stay alive. How could I be looking so hard for Salty and no one is looking for this mysterious freeway dog? How did he get there? Why is he stuck?

I called Kristina (who also was not going to be able to rest easy knowing he was trapped out there) and we came up with a plan to set up a live trap and get him out of there that night when I got home and get the an officer to assist by escorting us in their vehicle with safety lights and providing safety from traffic closing the lane long enough to get the trap set up, and again if we were able to get him secure. Fellow officer (and soon to be mom to her own baby) Ryann Everett came along and brought the best smelling rotisserie chicken she could find and our plan was put into action. We waited for what seemed like forever with no success and finally went home and went to bed.

At 5am my eyes snapped open and I knew in my heart he was in the trap, I woke Pete and made him ride along with me to check. Sure enough this big emaciated and terrified ACD was curled up as tight as he could was waiting to see what new terrible thing awaited him now that he was trapped. Little did he know his life was going to turn for the better.

We covered the trap, gave him more food to show him he did not need to fear anything and called for backup. An hour later Kristina, Ryann, Pete and I had the trap loaded and I am sitting alongside of his cage feeding him more cookies which he ate with gusto. Right then he became my friend and I told everyone his new name was “Freeway”, and we decided it was perfect. Kristina and Ryann took him to the shelter to scan him for a microchip and to begin his stray hold and I went home and started posting to social media to see if someone was out there looking for him.

I promised my new friends that I would help him anyway possible, and they are definitely my new friends, and a friend to any animal in need as well. These women are the salt of the earth.

Instead of finding his owners, we learned that he had been loose in the city for several months and had not been being cared for by his original home, which did not care about him or where he ended up. He was severely emaciated and had been trying to stay alive by eating trash and caulking that was on the divide with him. He had such depleted muscle mass that he couldn’t go faster then a walk without falling over. It is estimated that he is 16 months and he was also intact, though we offered to foster him once he was or could be neutered. After his stray hold was up, Ryann took him to her home as a sheriff foster and from there we have been involved in his progress toward being adoptable by assisting with evaluation and support. It was through Ryann advocating for Freeway that we have been able to get further assessment done, since she works as an AC officer for the dept the shelter staff and vet have gone above and beyond for “Freeway” and did some additional diagnostics at her request as she noticed his gait remained off even after weight was starting to be put back on. It took about 3 weeks to push for these services to take place and it is clear on the X-rays that he has a healing pelvic fracture on one side of his pelvis and a complete hip dislocation on the other side of pelvis.

Every recommendation we have received has been to let the fracture heal and then have an FHO done on the dislocation. Ryann made sure that he was given the opportunity to recuperate outside of the chaos of the shelter and he remained a foster with her at her house where we were able to further evaluate his character, biddability, dog social skills and future prospects. Our county animal services does not have the resources to care for him in his medical state and a rescue has not come forward, so his only option was hoping someone adopted him knowing he comes with future bills and being willing to take them on. Ryann is due to have her baby and so Freeways time in her home was coming to a close and a new path needed to be formed. Ryann and I decided to work together to see what we could do for him and this became our new plan. The county agreed to neuter him if I agreed to take responsibility for his medical care and I have agreed to “adopt” with the plan to find funding for his FHO, keep him through rehab and train him, and find him a permanent home. This solution was acceptable by both parties as we all want Freeway to have a good life and for a better ending to his story.

Freeway is now fully in my care and I am working diligently to make sure I do everything possible to get him what he needs. The average cost in our area for an FHO is 5500, with pre-surgical exam/xrays/followup exams and meds during recovery, I am estimating the total cost to be near 6k. Thanks to assistance from ACDRI (Australian Cattle Dog Rescue Inc.), and the vet office I am going to use (Orangevale Vet Hospital) I am hopefully only in need of fundraising for about 4500 of the total cost.

I am praying that if you have taken the time to read Freeways story that it might inspire you to help in anyway you can, by donating, by sharing the fundraising campaign, by writing a thank you note to the sheriff dept, I would be grateful for any of it.

Freeway already is grateful for his change of circumstances and deserves a happy ending.

The Sheriff's dept /Animal Services in our county is amazing, and everyone who works there does it for the love of the animals in our community. If you would like to show them your support, you can mail a thank you to them at 2510 Clay Bank Rd Fairfield, CA 94533. These people have chosen careers that often have more sad days then happy but they do it regardless and they could always use a little love and support, I and would like to find a way to show them that.

In lieu of donating through GoFundMe, you also can also make a donation to Freeway’s medical costs through Australian Cattle Dog Rescue Inc, the official rescue chapter of the ACDCA national club which is a 501c3 organization so that your donation is tax deductable. Please mark in the notes that the donation is to go to support Freeway, and ACDRI will pay your donation to the vet office directly. To access this option use the link https://acdrescueinc.org/ and hit the donate now button. ACDRI has also committed to donating to the cause, lowering the total amount that I need to raise to get Freeway all fixed up.

Furthermore, I want to make it clear that any funds donated to help Freeway that are not used up by his medical care will be split between the ACDRI (to help with other ACD rescue medical needs) and the Solano County Animal Care and Control branch of the Sheriffs dept ( to purchase items used and needed by the shelter on their amazon wish list). This fundraiser is not for any type of personal gain. I will be donating my time, training, covering all his living expenses and travel costs, taking full responsibility for him and finding him a new home as well as providing lifetime support for him the same as I would if he was born here. Additionally, I will commit to continuing to share his story so that you all can follow along while I do my best to turn this into something that sparks hope and faith in humanity and shows my community that their support for Salty means everything to me.

I truly think Freeway is worth it.

Thank you again for your time and consideration.

Alexis Kurowski