If anyone has doubt that there are good people in this world, Robert Dansby of Brundidge can put that doubt to rest.

Dansby has a story to share about friends and his best friend, a 12-year-old Weimaraner.

Little Robert was thought to be lost in a wooded area some distance from Dansby’s home. Dansby’s best friend had left home during the morning and remained missing overnight. Dansby was worried about his much-loved, trusted and dependable dog.

So, on a rather chilly, February morning, Dansby drove his truck to the area where he hoped to find Little Robert,

The search turned up nothing so Dansby returned to his truck but found he had locked the keys inside. To get help,  he walked to the home of a longtime friend, Leanne Helms.

“Robert is deaf and Little Robert helps him in so many ways,” Helms said. “Robert got Little Robert when he was a puppy. Little Robert is the only protection Robert has. He depends on his dog. I knew we had to find Little Robert so I called the Pike County Sheriff’s Department. Deputy Tim Brooks came to the house about 9 o’clock that morning. I explained that Robert was looking for his dog and how much the dog meant to him. Deputy Brooks offered to help him look.”

Dansby and Brooks began a second search for the lost dog. Shortly, into the search, Brooks heard barking and the two of them headed in the direction of the barking.

“When they found Little Robert, he was stuck in a 25-foot mud hole. Really, it was a gulley with a real slippery bank,” Helms said. “He might have been chasing a deer or something and slipped off into the mud. There was no way he could get out.”

It’s possible that Little Robert was barking all the time Dansby was looking for him.

“But Robert couldn’t hear him,” Helms said.

“Deputy Brooks needed help getting Little Robert out of the mud bog so he called another deputy and the fire truck came, too.”

Deputy Cedric Green and Glenn Adkins and Charles Tuttle of the Brundidge Volunteer Fire Department arrived at the scene along with Helms’ husband, Jimmy.

“It took several hours of struggling to get Little Robert free from the mud,” Helms said. “Robert got down in the mud trying to get Little Robert out. It took all of the men, though. They all came out with mud all over them.”

Little Robert had been lost for more than a day and Robert was happy to see him and Little Robert was happy to see Robert.

Helms said Dansby had been afraid he would never see his best friend again but everything turned all right, thanks to the men who pulled Little Robert from the mud bog.

“It would make chills go over you to see the reunion when Little Robert was pulled out of mud,” Helms said. “It was real touching.

“Robert wants others to know how much he appreciates what those men did to save his best friend and to know, too, that, if trouble comes their way, there are good people willing to help you out.”