Brad Orsted - Take It Outside

Doc bolted after a herd of mule deer into the dark timber and came back not using his right front leg.

I made a vet appointment the next morning.

She ordered X-rays. When she came back in the room she told me Doc had severe bilateral dysplasia in both elbows and it was starting in both hips. One of the worst cases she'd seen in a dog his age.

I told her I'd noticed the limp but had never once heard him whimper.

She looked at me and said, "Brad. That's because pain is all Doc knows and has ever known."

We both started crying. Two people who'd met an hour ago, in tears over a German Shepherd neither one of us was willing to let down.

Episode Four of Take It Outside is out now. Born To Suffer. Six weeks on the floor. Chicken tenders through Paradise Valley. A five dollar GoFundMe donor who needed to do something good in the world that day. And a sleeping dog who showed me something I'd been missing for years.

December 2022. The temperature outside Jardine, Montana dropped to minus sixty. Brad and Doc sealed themselves in with Star Wars, chili, and cheese off the block and waited it out. When the cold broke and the snow settled waist-deep across the landscape, they finally got back outside — and Doc spotted a herd of mule deer heading toward the Yellowstone border, mountain lion country, wolf country, and took off after them while Brad's head was in his phone.

What happened next Brad has never talked about publicly. Until now.

Less than fifteen minutes — about as long as it takes to run to the store. Take It Outside, Season Five, Episode Three is LIVE!

Before Doc arrived, Brad had a dream. Doc and Brad were in the woods together, and Doc was limping on his right front leg. He filed it away and tried to forget it. Weeks later, he couldn't. This episode: the dream that wouldn't let go, Doc's first night and the lonesome howl that broke Brad's heart, and a hike to a sacred spot in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness where a German Shepherd laid down in a grizzly bear's daybed — and something long frozen inside Brad began to thaw. Healing, like love, needs a witness.

Brad's back. He's been at an animal shelter, writing a book, and figuring out what a German Shepherd named Doc has to teach him about healing. Turns out, quite a lot.

Season Five is about dogs, recovery, and what happens when two broken things find each other and just decide to keep going.

Welcome back to Take It Outside.

Welcome to season 4 episode 1 of Take It Outside! Please join us on this episode to find out about the Through the Wilderness book launch and tour. We've had an amazing journey and met some very kindred spirits along the way. Doc and I are excited to share what we've learned on the road from all of you, with all of you. Until soon,

Doc and Brad

To purchase Through the Wilderness, please visit: https://read.macmillan.com/lp/through-the-wilderness/ This episode wraps up season three with an exclusive reading from Through the Wilderness. Find out how a flock of cedar waxwings flew off with a painful memory, and how we perform emotional surgery after tragedy. Thank you! - Brad

To preorder Through the Wilderness, please click here: https://read.macmillan.com/lp/through-the-wilderness/

What do late nights, huckleberry scones, and orphaned grizzly bears have in common? My life! Join us on this episode titled, Orphaned in the Wild, where I talk about my time baking and watching grizzly bear cubs, and read from my upcoming memoir, 'Through the Wilderness: My Journey of Redemption and Healing in the American Wild' about my early days of grizzly bear conservation at the feet of the master, Doug Peacock. Heyduke Lives!!!

In this episode of Take It Outside, titled, Lean on Me, I'll talk about my time tracking a mountain lion family with my good friend, Casey Anderson, and how steep climbs and frozen snot were exactly what I needed to start to deal with my trauma. I'll read from my memoir, Through the Wilderness: My Journey of Redemption and Healing in the American Wild, an early segment covering some of my time with Casey and the mountain lion kittens that reminded me so much of Marley. To pre-order a copy of Through the Wilderness for you, or someone who may need it, please visit: https://read.macmillan.com/lp/through-the-wilderness/

Thank you and enjoy the show!

Brad and Doc

Take It Outside is BACK with all new episodes! In this episode, I'll explain my radio hiatus, and read to you from my NEW memoir, Through the Wilderness: My Journey of Redemption and Healing in the American Wild due out with St. Martins Press on 6/27/23!!! Join us for how I met one of my heroes, Casey Anderson, and together followed and filmed a mountain lion family, learning as much about ourselves as cougars along the way. To pre-order Through the Wilderness, please visit: https://read.macmillan.com/lp/through-the-wilderness/ Thank you!

Welcome to Season 3 Episode 1 of Take It Outside! On this episode titled, Healing in Yellowstone, I'm finally off the soul-numbing prescriptions and starting to find my wild way to healing in Yellowstone. While days guiding in Yellowstone provided for grizzly bears, marriage proposals and forgotten underwear hikes, there was also the everyday painful reminder in all that beauty that Marley was gone from my life forever. The intense pain was suspended by the awe of Yellowstone by day, but always seemed to find me again in the mountains after the sun went down. Please join us on this episode of Take It Outside!