‘She’s a survivor’: Dog rescued after a month lost in the Shuswap wilderness

SICAMOUS – A Sicamous dog has been reunited with her owners after surviving a month lost in the bush.

Lizzy went missing Jan. 21 after following a scent in the Old Town Bay area in Sicamous during a walk with her owner. She didn’t come back, prompting her worried owners to post missing posters around the area. It was one such poster that caught Wayne Pedersen’s attention over the weekend.

He and three others saw a black dog part way down the beach, but having noticed a vehicle parked in the area, assumed it was there with its owner. As they were leaving, a poster for a missing dog caught Pedersen’s eye and made him take a second look at the dog on the beach.

“The dog matched the description,” Pedersen says. “She came right up to us and jumped in my truck. I didn’t have to ask her. Her demeanour was ‘get me out of here'.”

Skinny and scratched, Pedersen says the friendly dog was still able to muster the energy to jump up into the truck without hesitation. Somehow, she had survived a month in sub-zero temperatures with scarce food.

Pedersen phoned the number on the poster right away and says the owner cried as he told her the news.

“I couldn’t believe the dog had been missing for that long. I don't know what she was eating,” Pedersen says. “That dog is a survivor.”

They met at a nearby gas station and as a dog lover himself, Pedersen says it was quite moving to see Lizzy reunited with her owner.

“You put yourself in their shoes, for me, I’d have wrote the dog off. That long, I just would’ve given up at that point,” he says. “It was nice to see a good story for a change.”

The owners offered a reward for Lizzy’s return, but Pedersen and his friends wouldn’t take it.

“It was pretty amazing after a whole month, that to me is the most amazing part of it,” Pedersen says. “It was rewarding to see that dog go back to its owners.”

To contact a reporter for this story, email Charlotte Helston at chelston@infonews.ca or call 250-309-5230. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.