Fort Collins – The Nitchen family came home one day in Fort Collins to find Sappho sitting in a cowshed nursing some cuts.
They could tell her name from her dog tag, and that her owner was Laura Vigesaa of Fargo, N.D.
The Nitchens, who already had four dogs, took Sappho to a veterinarian and began calling Vigesaa’s home. After none of their messages were returned they called police and learned that Vigesaa, 27, had died after a two-vehicle accident March 12 just a few miles from their home.
Vigesaa, a student at North Dakota University, had been driving to Taos, N.M., where she did volunteer work on an Indian reservation.
“According to her brother she was just a wonderful person,” Sue Nitchen told KUSA-TV. “She just had a really big heart.”
Nitchen offered to return Sappho to North Dakota but Vigesaa’s brother decided the dog already had found a good home.
