Owner ‘not going to give up’ weeks after husky escapes
A search for a missing Siberian husky is continuing this week, after the 11-year-old dog was last spotted about two weeks ago just north of the city.
Wendy Innes said her recently adopted dog Maverick escaped Oct. 29 when she was out walking him and her other Siberian husky, after something happened to the leash and the clasp released. Because Maverick is a fearful dog, Innes couldn’t coax him back.
“He spent his whole entire life tethered or kennelled and he is just petrified of people,” she said. “And if anybody tries to get near him, he just runs.”
Innes and her son were able to track the dog ’s movements from MacEwan after that, with the animal spending six days in Confluence Park — where they were close to catching him before he got spooked out of the area — and three days in the Hamptons Golf Club area. He also made it back home one night, leaving paw tracks and the section of leash attached to his collar in the fresh snow, and was spotted along Country Hills Boulevard.
A Bring Maverick Home Facebook page has documented potential sightings and Innes said she has put up posters over a wide region, including in the Bearspaw area. Over the past five weeks, volunteers including family, friends and strangers have spent hours searching in the city’s northwest.
“It’s been over two weeks since anybody spotted him, and he’s old and he’s just had a terrible life,” she said. “That’s all I wanted to do, was just give him a good home.”
Innes adopted Maverick after the dog spent more than 10 years on a breeder’s property in a rural area. She brought the Husky home in mid- October when the breeder was forced to close. She noted other dogs from the property that were given new homes have also escaped but were recovered.
The last known sighting of Maverick was near 144th Avenue and 85th Street N.W., right on the Calgary city limits. Innes said she has been in contact with the dog ’s original owner in the Water Valley area, in case Maverick heads that way.
“I’ve got posters and signs up all over that area,” she said. “He could be hiding in somebody’s barn, he could be gravitating to where there’s cattle. … He does tend to gravitate toward treed areas, because that was the kind of environment that he grew up in.”
Innes said Maverick is black and white, a bit bigger than a coyote, and might still have a short portion of leash attached to his collar.
“I just want him home,” she said. “I want to be able to give him the good life that he deserves. … And I’m not going to give up on him.”