In the photo: Leslie McBride is happy to have Daisy back home after the boxer went missing and spent 16 days lost in the woods in Bonaparte Provincial Park.
If dogs could talk, Daisy, a five-year-old boxer, would be barking up one hell of a story.
Daisy and her owner, Leslie McBride, were staying at a cabin near Willowgrouse Lake, in Bonaparte Provincial Park 75 kilometres north of Kamloops, on Sept. 20.
McBride said some other campers were running a chainsaw and Daisy became startled and took off.
“I didn’t think she was that scared, but she was just gone,” McBride said.
She looked for Daisy.
She retraced their hike from their vehicle to the cabin.
She scoured the area as much as she could.
She called Daisy’s name.
There was no sign of her.
McBride went home the next day, but returned to Willowgrouse to look for Daisy.
She returned the next day.
And the day after that.
But, Daisy was nowhere to be seen.
For two weeks, McBride, who works as a letter carrier for Canada Post, would trek up to Willowgrouse after work to search for her dog.
Eventually, on the advice of Good Samaritan Alison Villeneuve, who had seen a poster McBride hung up in the area, she set up a live trap with Daisy’s blanket and some wet dog food.
Still, no sign of the dog.
Then, on Monday, Oct. 6, McBride and a co-worker made the drive to Willowgrouse after getting off work at 9 a.m.
“We had to check the trap because it had no water,” she said. “It was just something that had to be done daily.
“I wasn’t even in looking-for-Daisy mode. It was just, ‘We need to check the trap.’”
McBride hiked in to where the trap was set up — and there she was.
“I looked around the corner and I saw Daisy,” McBride said.
“She was in the trap. I just could not believe it.”
McBride said Daisy was in pretty good shape, considering the boxer had just spent 16 days fending for herself in the wild.
She had a few bumps and bruises, and had lost 14 pounds, but was otherwise fine.
“She was able to walk out,” McBride said, noting she put Daisy on a leash for the trek back to the truck.
“We went straight to the vet and the vet said to feed her every couple hours and she’ll be fine.”
McBride said Daisy is still re-adjusting to life at home.
“I think she’s really, really weak and kind of like, ‘What the hell happened to me?’” McBride said.
“She’s very tired. She’s just eating and sleeping and that’s it.”
McBride said she’s very thankful to the people who saw her posters and offered to help — especially Villeneuve.
“She would text me every day for support and I can’t thank her enough,” McBride said.
“I honestly don’t think I would have Daisy without her.”
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