A woman from B.C.’s Lower Mainland has been reunited with her lost dog, four weeks after the animal disappeared without a trace on Mount Seymour. Samantha Jung said her beloved pet Callie vanished into the wilderness on the morning of Jan. 29, prompting a rescue effort that included multiple searches of the area, help from North Shore Rescue trainees in a helicopter, and a social media campaign. There was no GPS tracker on the dog when she went missing.
On Sunday, Jung posted on Instagram that Callie was home safe, accompanied by a picture of the dog wrapped snugly in a blanket.”She’s acting like nothing ever happened,” Jung wrote. “I’m in awe at the strength and will to survive she exhibited … I can only imagine the things she’s seen and done to get back home.”
The owner did not provide any further details on how Callie was found. She told CTV News she would be providing more information at a later date.
“We’ll share more in time when we’re ready,” Jung said in her post. “Our focus is eat, sleep, recover, repeat. Thank you everyone for helping to bring my best friend back.”‘
Callie’s disappearance struck a cord with animal lovers, and news of the dog’s safe return prompted hundreds of celebratory messages online, including from one Facebook user who described “sobbing tears of elation.”
Jung said she was using a restroom at the time of Callie’s disappearance, but had left the dog leashed and in the care of a friend. Something apparently spooked the animal, causing her to run off down the mountain away from any trails.
“I’m devastated I wasn’t there to call her back. I never thought she would take off like that as we trained to come back if the leash dropped,” she wrote on a previous post.
A friend of Jung’s also set up an online fundraiser to support her during the search, and collected upwards of $4,700. The creation of flyers and attempted commissioning of experts to help with the search were also among the intended uses of the funds, according to the organizer.