It was a happy ending for a group who desperately searched for a dog that got loose along the Trans-Canada Highway in New Brunswick.
The RCMP was called to the scene of a single vehicle accident near Oromocto at 9:30 p.m. Friday.
The driver wasn’t injured, but officers say she said her dog was missing.
“She indicated to the on scene commander that she lost her dog,” says volunteer firefighter Donald Tupper of the Oromocto Fire Department.
The woman driving was headed from Prince Edward Island to Ontario, but it was snowing heavily at the time.
Volunteer firefighter Brian Inkpen says the driver was distraught.
“She had just went through a pretty traumatic accident and losing a companion like one of your dogs, it would never be easy, I’m a dog owner myself so I can just imagine what she was going through,” he says.
Emergency crews at the scene repeatedly called out the dog's name: "Sherlock!"
Tupper says the calls were unsuccessful so they decided to regroup and come up with a different plan. The group then drove down the highway looking for tracks.
Finally, they came across paw prints in the fresh snow that went through a gate and into the woods.
By this time, about a half dozen people were looking for Sherlock including the base Gagetown Range Control.
While the wild winter weather was a challenge, it proved to be quite helpful too.
“It was actually to our advantage,” says Inkpen. “It was a fresh coat of snow so it was fairly easy to find his tracks.”
After nearly 2.5 hours of searching the group came across Sherlock tangled up.
“He was on a leash on him, a long leash and it was all wrapped around his legs and his chest and one of the road barriers,” says Tupper. “It was a rewarding moment to find the dog.”
The men say they weren’t going home until they solved the case.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Nick Moore.
