Late on the afternoon of Friday, Oct. 26, Barriere resident Wayne Campbell returned from a hunting trip with a tall, dark and very energetic dog. He took the dog to the home of local animal advocate Elli Kohnert, where he explained that he had been hunting in the Fadear Creek back country area, when he noticed the dog. The dog easily caught his eye as it was wet and shivering, and sitting near a slash pile put up for burning.
Elli told Wayne she would get to work on finding out where the dog belonged, but could not keep him at her house.
No problem, said Wayne, “He can stay at my place and keep my dog company”.
Elli tells that once the dog’s story had been posted on Facebook, many people responded to it.
“It was amazing to find so much interest and offers of help from there,” noted Elli. “One person mentioned that she had heard Interfor (Adams Lake mill) had workers up in the area burning slash piles, which gave me the idea to search for any employee of that company and ask for information about someone who may have been there with this dog.”
As the dog had been found on the weekend Elli knew she would have to wait until people returned to the mill office on Monday.
But on Sunday afternoon Elli’s daughter-in-law called to tell her that Elli’s grandson Adam Kohnert had been hunting in the same area. While there he met a family and started chatting with them. They told Adam they were up there looking for their dog who had gone missing while with the husband who was burning the slash piles. Adam took their phone number, and when he returned home called his Mom from Kamloops to ask she pass the missing dog information on to his grandmother, Elli.
Of course, that call put the pieces of the puzzle together quickly for Elli. After contacting the dog’s owners, she then called Wayne to let him know the dog’s name was ‘Kirk’, and that Kirk apparently has a bad habit of wandering off when no one is looking.
Kirk had accompanied his owner to work on burning the piles, become lost, and although the workers all looked for him until darkness set in, they had to leave the area for the night without the wayward canine.
Elli says the dog’s owners “Were absolutely delighted and amazed that Kirk was safe”, when she reached them by telephone.
Instead of waiting for them to travel out to Barriere the next day to take Kirk home, Elli says Wayne decided to deliver the dog to the family that evening. Needless to say the family was very relieved and grateful to have their companion back home where he belonged, and thanked Wayne for “saving their dog” and kindly returning him to their home.
Elli notes that Facebook users very helpful in trying to find Kirk’s owners.
“The support it provided was appreciated by everyone who was involved with this search and rescue of Kirk,” said Elli, “But the amazing coincidence was that my grandson Adam, in Kamloops, connected with me at just the right time to help Kirk rejoin his family. Sometimes good things happen that do not have an explanation, but are so very much appreciated.”
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Sorry, I do not have names for the people in this picture, except Wayne Campbell in the middle
Maybe he can remember their last name - and the boy’s name, I know the man holding Kirk is David.