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It was Grace before, and Grace again By DANI DODGE ASHLAND -- A moment of charity Sunday afternoon later became a saving grace. Ashland resident Cherie Garland was coming home from a Methodist woman's retreat on Sunday when she was shocked to see a tiny puppy in the middle of the rural South Fork of Little Butte Creek Road in Eagle Point. "You could see the silhouette," Garland said. "There was no sign of houses or people anywhere." So she opened her car door and the shivering dog tried to jump in. Instead of the spry puppy she expected, it was a thin, black and tan dachshund with the gray hair of age sprouting from its muzzle. Garland lifted the trembling canine into her lap and brought it to Ashland. At the recommendation of a friend who does animal rescue work, she took the dog to the Bear Creek Animal Clinic Monday morning. "The veterinarian said she was probably 12 to 14 years old with very bad arthritis," Garland said. "He said, we should probably put the dog down, but didn't want to do it before we found the owner." So Garland wrapped the dog back up in a baby blanket, and wondered aloud where she should take her. Garland lives in a third-floor condominium, and didn't have access to a lawn. Without hesitation, veterinary assistant Bev Eaton offered to take the dog home and place a free found ad in the Mail Tribune. It was the second "foundling" that had come into the clinic that day. Eaton called the first dog "Mercy," and called the dachshund "Grace." Though older and smaller than any of the 10 dogs Eaton had at home, Grace was a feisty old girl, Eaton said. Grace snapped and snarled at even the biggest of Eaton's canine brood, preferring human company to animal friendships. The day after the ad ran, Eaton's husband got a call from the dog's owner, Roger Liles, who had been checking the paper every day. He lived out on the South Fork of Little Butte Creek Road, in a house that had no phone and couldn't be seen from the gravel street. "The owner explained the dog was 19 years old," Eaton said. "It was his mother's dog, (the mother) had just passed away. She had just wandered away." Liles said that after his mother died, some suggested the ancient canine should be put down, but he had wanted to keep the dog as long as possible. Because she could no longer jump up on the couch, the dog slept on a blanket under the kitchen table near a space heater. Arrangements were made for Liles to meet Eaton at the clinic the next day. "He came in and said he wanted the hitch-hiking wiener dog," Eaton said. He also called the dog by name: "Grace," short for Gracie Louise. Garland said she wept when she heard that not only had the owner been found, but also somehow, they even got the name right. "I thought, that's what Grace is," Garland reflected. "It's rescuing and loving and making all things right." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA