Beagle reunited with family after being lost in Victoria Park
TRURO — A beagle who went loose in Victoria Park on Valentine’s Day was reunited with his family thanks to the help of local fat-bikers, in a moment captured on video by a drone.
Matt Hutt was helping his six-year-old with her mittens by Joseph Howe Falls in Victoria Park when one of their two beagles, Benny, got out of his harness and shot off.
His wife, Vanessa Hutt, posted on Facebook and people were quick to respond with sightings of the dog. On Sunday, there were more occupants in the 3,000-acre woodland park than on a normal summer’s day.
But Benny is a four-yearold beagle — and he is fast. He kept running away. Fast. And higher up into the park.
“I walked around on foot talking to people and I had my other beagle with me ... hoping that Benny would maybe see him and come over because they get along great,” said Hutt. “You could hear him barking in the woods a couple of times, but the place is huge, it’s like finding a needle in a haystack.”
The whole family was worried, but Hutt felt confident someone in the park would find Benny, who had a collar with their phone number. And their daughter was a trooper.
“She was pretty frustrated about walking through the park as much as she did, she’s almost six,” said Hutt. “So that was a lot for her. But you know, she was obviously worried.”
Keith Gillis, a fat-biker and trail groomer, had just finished an 18-kilometre fatbike ride with his group and was showing the groomer to curious onlookers in the railyard parking lot off Young Street. He’d heard about a dog on the loose through Facebook, and soon after Vanessa showed up.
“This lady got out of the car with a leash without a dog,” said Gillis. “The three of us kind of found that odd and got talking to her. Somebody said that her dog was near the area between here and the school. They looked at school but they couldn’t find him, because it’s hard walking with all that snow.”
Gillis scanned the area with his drone, which Matt saw while searching on foot, but did not spot Benny. After Vanessa left to pick up Matt at Truro Junior High School, he started videoing Kevin Mccormick on his fatbike from the sky.
In a moment captured by the drone, Mccormick met Benny on the trail. He stopped, got off his bike and managed to get hold of him.
Aaron Tooker, who was grooming a nearby trail, took a happy and tail-wagging Benny on the sled out to the parking lot — just as the Hutt family arrived, nearly two hours after he first got loose.
“My wife said, ‘oh my God, there’s Benny!’” said Hutt. “We were more than happy to get him back. My wife was in tears, of course, because she was happy.”
For the fatbikers, they were glad to be there, because the “timing worked out perfect.”
“Seeing the little girl so happy just makes you feel good, especially on Valentine’s Day,” said Gillis. “Dogs are part of the family ... like a friend or a person. It felt really good, just being able to be there and help out.”
Benny is doing well and happy to be back with the family.
“He was pretty tired that night. He didn’t move too much,” said Hutt. “I told my wife I wish I’d had a Gopro on the top of his head because I probably would have gotten some good scenery.”