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The NWT's own incredible journey After nine days alone in the bush,
two dogs find their way home
Laura Busch
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, August 28, 2013
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
It was almost like a chapter out of Sheila Burnford's 1961 novel The Incredible Journey.
Ten-year-old rottweiler-cross Belle, left, rests in the vet's office under the watchful gaze of Timber, a three-and-a-half-year-old German Shepherd cross. The pair were missing for nine days in July near Cameron River. - photo courtesy of Pamela Taylor |
Pamela Taylor's two dogs returned last month after nine days in the bush.
"I still had hope. I didn't want to think that no, they're not coming back."
When Pamela Taylor's two dogs took off in a sudden thunder storm near her cabin at Cameron River, it kicked off nine days of sleepless nights and long days of searching.
The oldest of the pair, Belle, a 10-year-old rottweiler-cross, is afraid of thunder and Taylor believes she spooked when the thunder storm hit and Timber, a three-and-a-half-year old black German Shepherd-cross, took off after her to keep her safe.
It's not normal for either of the dogs to take off. They spend a lot of time at the cabin and at the family's fishing lodge on Gordon Lake, said Taylor.
She called and searched for them throughout the two-hour storm, searching everywhere that night and for the next three days. She drove up and down the highway, walked the river and asking others to help her search, but the dogs were gone.
"They must have run a long way during that storm and gotten turned around out there," said Taylor. "It was a horrible few days of just not sleeping and looking and looking."
After those first three days, Taylor had to leave the cabin to start a new job in the city, but she refused to call off the search. Her husband went to the cabin every day and drove the highway.
The family also enlisted the help of highway employees, RTL staff, and Joe McBryan of Buffalo Airways even lent time on a Twin engine Beechcraft to do flyovers of the area after they had been missing for about a week.
"It was a really intensive search. This was like losing my children," said Taylor. "This is no small thing - this is not just two dogs. These dogs are with me all the time. They are the most amazing, wonderful dogs."
McBryan said he was happy to help, as he knew the dogs and how important they are to the family.
"Dogs have been known to travel great distances - plus cats. So, there was a thought they might come home," he said, adding the Beechcraft did two trips and was getting ready for a third when the news came in the dogs were found.
"The dogs were older dogs and they were very, very much a part of that family. They just weren't some dogs. The older dog I've known for years getting flown back and forth from the camp. So, I knew the dogs and I knew they were special to that family."
After they had been gone a week, Taylor was worried about whether Belle would have been able to handle the stress of being on her own so long.
"I honestly didn't think (Belle) would survive, and if she laid down and died, I knew Timber wouldn't leave her," she said.
Finally, at about 11 a.m. on July 20, Taylor received the call she had been waiting and wishing for.
Two black dogs had just walked into Camp Connections and while Belle's collar had been ripped off, Timber still had her tags, which gave the camp counsellor a phone number to call.
Camp Connections is located just a few kilometres upriver from the Taylors' cabin. Taylor believes the pair had taken off far to the east in the storm and were slowly making their way back along the river.
"They may have made it all the way back to the cabin but Belle, she was seriously on her last legs," she said.
After receiving the call, Taylor got in her car immediately and drove out to pick up Belle and Timbre.
"When I got there, Belle, she just laid down," she recalled.
Both dogs were uninjured, though dehydrated and hungry. They had each dropped 13 pounds from their usual 70-pound weight.
At the vet's office, Belle slept for hours under Timbre's watchful gaze.
Now, they are both back to their normal weight and are happy and healthy. However, Taylor said Belle will be staying in town from now on, just to be on the safe side.
When asked why it was so important to her to find Belle and Timber, Taylor struggled to put the importance of the relationship into words.
"They're friends and protectors," she said, adding Timbre got between a hungry black bear and a construction worker at their fishing lodge the weekend of Aug. 17.
"When I'm with them, I can walk the Frame Lake Trail and I know I'm safe. They protect the house and they make me laugh. They're comical and they're silly and they just love unconditionally - how can you quantify the value of that?"
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