HALIFAX -- An Ontario woman is crediting a Nova Scotia trucker for going the extra mile to reunite her with her beloved dog.

The story begins in St. Thomas, Ont., when Victoria Craig loaded her pregnant dog Kilt into the car and headed to Hamburg, N.Y.

Craig was about to leave for a humanitarian trip to Nepal, so she left Kilt and her future puppies in the care of her friend and breeder Kim Russel.

Not long after, Craig’s trip was cancelled and the Canadian/American border was closed as measures were put in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

With the border closed, Craig was unable to go to New York to retrieve Kilt.

“She was 100 per cent cared for, that wasn’t the concern,” says Craig.

“The concern was how I would bring my dog home and when I would see her again.”

As days passed and it became clear the border would not be opening soon, Craig began to think of a way to bring Kilt home.

It dawned on her that truckers were still able to cross the border, so Craig posted on social media asking for help.

“I didn’t know any truckers, so it was a shot in the dark if any of my contacts knew truckers. There were people trying to help from all angles, but with no success. I had pretty much given up and resigned myself that Kilt would be there for the duration of this necessary quarantine,” says Craig.

Then came the first real glimmer of hope Craig had in weeks - a message from an old friend on Facebook.

John MacKinley, of Upper Sackville, N.S., met Craig through dog agility competitions when she was living in Moncton.

“When I saw Vic’s post and realized her dog had been gone for six or seven weeks, I put myself in her shoes,” says MacKinley.

“If that was my dog I would want my dog home and would work very hard to get my dog home.”

MacKinley messaged Craig at 9 a.m. Sunday saying he might know someone who could help.

That’s when Kristy Dalby came into the picture. Dalby owns a dog training and daycare facility in Hebbville, N.S. and is also part of the agility world.

Dalby’s husband Jeff is a trucker and MacKinley thought he, or one of his colleagues, may be able to help.

“I couldn’t believe it, this Jeff person who I had never met, in 15 minutes had somebody lined up to bring my dog home,” says Craig.

Erik MacDonald, a commercial trucker from Middle Sackville, N.S., was travelling from Nova Scotia to Ontario, via New York.

“All I know is, my phone rang in the morning and they asked me and I said ‘yes,’” says MacDonald.

MacDonald was about four hours away from Buffalo at the time and agreed to pick up Kilt and cross the border with the dog.

“I was hoping that if I was in that situation that someone would do it for me,” says MacDonald.

“She was an extremely well behaved dog, I didn’t even know she was here.”

Seven hours after she first made contact with McKinley and two months after she last saw Kilt, Craig was reunited with her beloved dog.

“We met in a Walmart parking lot, he pulled up in a big truck, Kilt heard my voice and just flew out of the truck, she was so excited,” says Craig.

“I thanked him (MacDonald) for being so wonderful. I offered to help pay for his trouble, he wouldn’t take anything. How do you thank someone for doing something so spur of the moment that means so much? It doesn’t seem appropriate to just say thank you.”

Craig says the reunion was truly an international effort.

“Jeff was corresponding from North Dakota, Kristy was in Bridgewater, John was in Sackville, Kim was in New York, Erik was in New York, how it all came together was just pretty much a miracle,” says Craig.

“I was just so grateful that all of these strangers worked together to bring my dog home.”