Rancher Kip Konig saw the German shepherd in the distance as he checked his cattle Sunday in the Pawnee National Grasslands.

The dog kept running back to a pickup, partially obscured in a depression and jumping into the front seat.

“I got the sense she was trying to tell me where her master was,” said Konig.

Near the pickup, Konig spotted the skeletal remains of Jake Baysinger, the dog’s owner. Baysinger had shot himself six weeks earlier.

Baysinger and the dog, named Cash, had disappeared June 28 from their home in La Salle.

In Konig’s mind, the dog had been guarding Baysinger.

Today, Baysinger’s widow, Sara, said that what happened for six weeks was the story of a kind, gentle dog.

Cash lived off mice, rabbits and other rodents as she kept watch over the man who adopted her when she was a puppy, said Sara Baysinger.

“She was Jake’s baby,” said Baysinger. “She was our baby before we had our son.”

Sara, 23, and Jake, 25, were childhood sweethearts and started dating 12 years ago. They married five years ago.

Sara Baysinger said investigators have told her that they believe Cash protected Jake’s body from coyotes and other animals and would jump into the pickup, which had both of its windows rolled down, to get out of the weather.

Except for being dehydrated when found, she was in good health, said Baysinger. Rescuers and veterinarians were astounded by her condition.

Dr. Mindi Dosch, the vet who examined Cash, said she was very thin when brought in but in good health, having suffered no damage to her kidneys or liver because of dehydration.

At the clinic where Dosch works, Cash was “kissing” everyone in sight, said Dosch, and was “bright and alert.”

The vet noted that a dog can’t live without water for longer than 72 hours and that Cash had to have been feeding off mice and other rodents, apparently teaching herself to hunt.

“She was a very intelligent dog to live for that long,” said Dosch.

Cash also was lucky, said the vet, noting that parts of Colorado are full of predators, including coyotes.

Authorities believe the fact that Cash was able to stay in the cab of the pickup helped protect her.

On Monday, Baysinger picked the dog up from the Weld County Humane Society.

“She was extremely excited,” Sara Baysinger said laughing. “She scratched my chest. She was jumping on me and excited to get out of there. She got in the truck and was licking on me.”

One of the happiest reunions was between Cash and her little buddy, 2-year-old Lane Baysinger.

The second he saw Cash, Lane cried out. “He went running toward her, trying to get some bones, trying to feed her treats,” Sara Baysinger recalled.

Chris Robillard, deputy coroner in Weld County, said it appears that Jake Baysinger committed suicide by using a 9mm semi-automatic pistol.

Robillard suspects Baysinger killed himself on June 28, the Saturday afternoon he disappeared with Cash.

Although it was a tragic end to her husband’s life, Sara Baysinger says she has the memories of Jake and Cash together.

“They would go to a park down from the house, and they would play fetch forever and ever and ever,” Baysinger recalled. “He would throw a ball, whatever they could find.”

On Monday night, Cash was a comfort to Sara and Lane. She slept at the foot of their bed.

Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com