Tilly Oswald has officially earned a nomination for Goodest Dog of 2021.
Tilly is a two-year-old border collie and red heeler mix who was happily going for a ride on Idaho State Highway 41 with his family when an accident changed absolutely everything.
When the Oswalds were involved in a traffic accident, Tilly escaped through the shattered rear window. Stunned but uninjured, he did what many people have tried to do unsuccessfully since the beginning of time: He fled the scene.
His humans immediately started searching for Tilly, assisted by a handful of complete strangers who watched the situation unfold. All told, the search party spent around 10 hours following the accident attempting to find the shy pupper. Eventually, the Oswald family went home, sore and discouraged.
Once they returned home, the Oswalds shared a Facebook post with a picture of Tilly and a description of the area where he took off. Over 3,000 astute Facebook users shared the post, which is ultimately how Tilly ended up coming home.
That's right -- the picture reached Tyler, Travis and Zane Potter, who recognized Tilly as one of the dogs who had been working on their family farm. Initially, they had assumed Tilly was another one of the farm herding dogs, but noted that he wouldn't come when called.
It turns out that Tilly's strong herding instinct may have saved his life. Linda Oswald noted that Tilly has always demonstrated a certain knack for herding, including herding his family and friends at the dog park. The Potters and the Oswalds agreed that the very good dog must have been attracted to the sheep, and immediately set to work doing his job, despite not having much of a clue where he was or who these fluffy baa-ing beasts were.
Naturally, Tilly was thrilled to be reunited with his family, but more specifically, he was happy for toilet water. Linda Oswald notes that he's never done that before, but his happiness and relief led him to treat himself the old-fashioned way. Or, more likely, he was just really thirsty after 24 hours on his own.