RESCUING LOUIE
Stranded for four days in the Chilliwack mountains, an injured lab was saved by five strangers who answered a desperate plea for help. The ‘fetch the dog’ story is now a happy tail.
When Louie left home his tail was wagging.
Bound for a subalpine lake in the Chilliwack mountains with his favourite human, the chocolate lab was leaping with excitement as his owner’s daughter picked him up for a weekend hike.
But Louie’s outing soon turned to a fight for survival after the dog was injured and could no longer walk. After four days stranded in the wilderness, he was rescued Wednesday afternoon by six hikers who learned about his plight on social media.
On Sunday, Louie’s tail was wagging again as he was released from an animal hospital in Langley.
“We are so grateful to the people who helped get him down,” said his owner, Amanda McGregor. “They’re everyday heroes.”
Louie’s adventure began last Sunday when McGregor’s stepdaughter, Janessa Walker, picked up the dog from her parents’ house in Deroche en route to the Radium Lake trailhead in the Chilliwack River Valley. The pair have been hiking buddies since Louie was a pup, and the recent purchase of a four-season tent was the perfect excuse for an overnight trip.
“They were excited and happy,” said McGregor. “In hindsight, he probably wasn’t in shape for a long hike.”
Walker was expected back at 2 p.m. on Monday. When McGregor’s phone finally rang at 8:30 p.m., she and Walker’s dad, John, were on the verge of panic. A stranger told them he’d met Walker and Louie near Radium Lake, which doesn’t have cell service, but the dog couldn’t walk.
The previous day, as the pair had approached a narrow bridge near the lake, Louie disappeared for a few minutes. Walker assumed he had picked his way across the stream on his own until she found him lying on the ground.
“We don’t know for sure what happened, but we think he fell,” said McGregor.
Louie’s paws were bloody, and he had a large scrape on his belly. He couldn’t walk.
Back at home, McGregor called police. It was night and Walker was equipped to camp, so a decision was made to wait until noon the next day before going in search of the hiker and her dog.
In the morning, Walker climbed down the mountain to get food for herself and Louie, making phone contact with her parents and police before heading back up.
“At that point, the police were not as helpful,” said McGregor. “If a person wasn’t in danger they weren’t getting involved.”
They received a similar response from Chilliwack Search and Rescue, which needs to be called in by police for insurance reasons.
Desperate, Walker’s parents tried the steep, nine-kilometre hike themselves on Tuesday afternoon. They were unable to get to Louie and were forced to turn around, returning home well past dark.
Back at the lake, Walker squirted water into Louie’s mouth. She tried to carry the 90-pound dog on her back, falling several times before curling up next to the pup. She covered both of them in an emergency blanket and tried to sleep.
On Wednesday morning, McGregor hit upon a new plan. At the advice of the SPCA, she joined a Facebook hiking group dedicated to Chilliwack trails and posted a plea for help.
Abbotsford hiker Iain Harvey saw the post, as did hundreds of other members, who posted advice and good wishes. Several hikers offered to go up Thursday, but Harvey identified a few who could leave immediately. They began messaging backand-forth to determine a meeting time. Harvey borrowed a dog stretcher from Laurie McPhee, a canine first-aid teacher.
“Five complete strangers met us at the trail,” said McGregor. “I burst into tears. They were going up there to rescue my kid and my dog.”
When Harvey and the others — Toby Hyde, Coby Hamilton, Isaac Hazelton, Matt Horin and Charlene Howard — got close to the lake, they met an exhausted Walker, coming down for more supplies. She had tried to make a stretcher for the ailing Louie, but it wasn’t working.
When the group reached the dog, they loaded him onto the stretcher and took turns carrying it down the narrow trail.
“Louie wasn’t moving at all,” said Hyde. “The entire way down he seemed exhausted and tired.”
But when they got to the bottom where McGregor and Walker were waiting, Louie lifted his head slightly and opened his eyes. From there, he was whisked to the animal hospital.
After three tense days battling exposure, dehydration and multiple infections, Louie was able to go home Sunday. One of his rescuers has started a GoFundMe page to help pay for his vet bills, while McGregor is planning a barbecue for the “heroes” who rescued her dog.
“They started as strangers, but now they’re friends,” she said.