So much of our lives are made up of small, seemingly mundane tasks and encounters that we often don’t think much of. But what if those happenings were somehow connected to something bigger? Something extraordinary. That’s how Cherryland member Tricia Frey likes to look at the world after one quick encounter ended up changing her life in ways she’d never expected.

“I’m sitting on my couch watching TV with a cat on either side, and I see this movement out the front window of my house. I stand up, and there’s this sheltie, and our eyes lock, and he runs to the neighboring property. I tear to my window to see where this dog is going, and I’m like, oh, the neighbor’s dog, you know, probably not supposed to be over here,” reflected Frey.

She saw him time and time again out that front window and eventually concluded he wasn’t a neighboring dog. He must be a stray. So she started calling him Sheldon: Sheldon the sheltie. At the time, she had no idea what a journey Sheldon had been on, how he was about to rope her into his adventures, or about the place he’d fill in her heart.

“It took me two years to touch him for the first time and another six months to get him inside my house,” Frey explained. “In the meantime, my sister and I converted an old shed outside into a house for him. We fed him and tried everything we could to draw him closer to us.”

Once Frey had gained Sheldon’s trust enough to let her bring him inside, two and a half years after she was first drawn to him, the pair became inseparable. For Frey, Sheldon was a piece of her puzzle she didn’t know she was missing.

A few years later, Sheldon got sick. During a trip to the vet, Frey got some heartbreaking news about Sheldon’s health. But that’s not all, Frey explained, “When I got into the appointment where the doctor was going to tell me what we could do to help Sheldon, he put the x-rays up on a lighted screen. For whatever reason, the first words out of the doctor’s mouth were, ‘You see that little line there? That’s his chip, you know, his microchip.’ But I never had him microchipped.”

Did Sheldon, the companion Frey bonded with so deeply, belong to someone else? After all this time, was she supposed to give him up? And now, of all times, when he’s so sick and needs her more than ever?

Nine months later, Sheldon died in her arms. When it came time to cremate her beloved dog, she had one final request. She wanted to know where he came from, how he found his way to her, and why. Frey had Sheldon’s chip scanned and began unraveling his unbelievable story.

Frey’s memoir, her first book, was released in 2020. “River Love: The True Story of a Wayward Sheltie, a Woman, and a Magical Place Called Rivershire,” takes readers through that unbelievable journey. Last year, Frey released a second book titled “Sheldon’s Journey: The Story of a Sweet-Natured Dog in Search of His True Home,” a book geared toward younger generations with beautiful illustrations to take kids on Sheldon’s many adventures that eventually lead him to his forever home.

Frey says, “In this first book, it’s how I envision Sheldon got to me. The path he took to find me. It’s from seeing him for the first time and stuff that was going on in my life and the property on which I live, Rivershire being the very special, magical place it is. River Love is a very honest story written with teens and adults in mind. But Sheldon was such a dear that I just thought, there’s got to be a story out there for kids. So, I decided to write the children’s version, Sheldon’s Journey.”

Frey’s love for Sheldon and his journey to her magical little corner on the Boardman River transformed into a life-changing journey into self-discovery through her writing. Something so impactful, sparked by one little, magically mundane moment. “So I ask myself a lot as I go through this life, what miraculous thing might happen to me today?” Frey said. “And I think people should ask that of themselves— instead of thinking, ‘Oh, another day and the same old, same old,’ say what amazing thing, miraculous thing, might happen to me today?”

You can find Frey’s book at local bookstores and on Amazon. For more information, click here to visit the author’s website.