Gilles and Renee Charlebois say that Tucker, their 10-year-old cockapoo, is a swift and mischievous dog.
Case in point: while they were enjoying the sun on the island of Cayo Coco in Cuba last Friday, Tucker snuck out through an unlocked gate at the dogsitter’s home.
“He would have been smiling running down the road,” Renee laughed.
“(But) at some point realized he was in trouble.”
The Charlebois were told by their daughter that an emergency occurred, and they needed to get in touch with the dogsitter.
When the Charlebois heard what happened, they scrambled to get home as soon as they could. Back in North Bay, a search party of friends and family quickly formed.
“It seemed like everybody knew he was missing and everybody was looking for him,” Renee said.
The search party plastered photos all the Facebook page ‘Buster’s page - Helping North Bay pets get home.'
Renee said her entire Facebook feed was shares and photos of Tucker. But as the time went by, the situation became more dire.
“That Friday night was the big storm and that weekend it was -20,” she said.
Then on Monday, a group of snowmobilers on Lake Nipissing were returning from the Manitou Islands, when one snowmobiler noticed something odd.
Thinking it was a child’s toy, he got closer and he discovered it was Tucker.
Tucker had dug himself a hole and was curled up in a ball, trying to keep warm a couple of kilometres away from the shoreline.
The snowmobiler immediately wrapped Tucker up to get him warm and contacted the North Bay and District Humane Society
Staff put him in touch with Tucker’s search party. It was a big relief for the Charlebois family.
“Our other cockapoo, Sophie, passed away the week before we left,” Gilles and Renee said.
“We just remember saying ‘You have to find him.’”
Tucker is almost back to his old self. He suffered a bit of dehydration and Gilles said the pad on one of his paws had a little bit of frostbite.
The couple is looking at getting a small GPS tracker to put on his collar just in case it ever happens again.
Once he fully recovers, the Gilles and Renee are hoping to arrange a meeting with the snowmobiler to thank him -- and formally introduce him to Tucker.
“Thank you to all the people on the Buster’s page and all the volunteers that went and looked for him,” Renee said.
