Dear Editor,
This is thank you to the people of Agassiz and Harrison. A Bernese mountain dog escaped from a house in Agassiz Friday, Feb 20. My husband and I saw a dog running down Harrison Hot Springs road and tried to catch the dog. The person who was looking after the dog also tried to catch her. She then ran as far as Hardy road. The owner was in Sechelt . Even though we did not know the owners or the dog we offered to help put up signs and help look. We meet the owner who was here to search for her dog. Establishments in the area told patrons about this dog and let us put up signs at their businesses. The streets and telephone poles where filled with flyers. People on the street took flyers. It seemed everyone knew about this missing dog.
We asked the owner who we had never met before if she wanted to stay at our house as this was close to where Inka the dog went missing. It was amazing to see so many people phoning in tips and offering to help. We went to many false alarms but all where checked out. Even children at the high school phoned in what they thought was the missing dog.
Inka the missing dog did not know she can't walk to Sechelt, but that's the way she was heading .
On Saturday, the dog was sighted at Kent Corrections and our neighbor who works there helped by getting the perimeter checked. On Monday, she was seen on Morris valley road by the Sts;ailes Store and gas station going to Hemlock. It was amazing to see all the people who came out and volunteered to search and help. Meeting places where arranged and strangers got together. Even though more sightings where phoned in, Inka was not to be seen.
On Tuesday, she was seen again on Morris valley road by the single lane bridge. Seems she was heading down again toward hwy 7. We missed her by 10 minutes. Then she was sighted again by the Sasquatch Inn. We then decided to put flyers up in Deroche, thinking maybe she was heading down Hwy 7 .
On Wednesday, many people had come to help. Some took the day off to search. Someone with a K9 tracker dog came all the way from Port Coquitlam and by now it was raining. Allen bought his 13-year tracker dog and spent hours searching and volunteering his time and his dog in the rain. No luck. We where just going to the Sasquatch Inn for coffee when the phone call came from someone who had see Inka around 10 that morning on a logging road. It was now 2 p.m. With little hope because it was such a long time later we went down that road in our car not knowing how far we had to go before we bogged down. Someone driving a white truck said they saw a dog about a kilometre up the road.
There she was. With tears in our eyes, she came limping toward us. She smelled terrible and was dirty, hungry, thirsty and had cuts on her feet. She had ticks and some small cuts but she had survived five days and nights and a very long trip. The people in this area are wonderful.
Sandra Denisuk
Harrison Hot Springs