Sarah Martin and her family were aghast when their pet red heeler - Odin - jumped out of the pick up in Keremeos and disappeared in mid October.
“Carl was picking up some building material at Keremeos Building Supply on October 16, when the dog jumped out the window, unknown to him,” explained Sarah recently.
“When Carl got home, I asked him, ‘Where’s the dog?’”
Carl returned to the building supply store where owner Jake MacDonald was just closing up.
“Jake wondered whose dog it was. He said Odin had hung around until around 4 p.m. He didn’t see him after that.”
Martin said that she and Jake’s wife, Erin, began a search around the Red Bridge Pub.
“It was wing night, and there were quite a few pickers around,” said Martin, noting that the dog was very friendly and would likely gravitate towards people.
They didn’t find Odin, and the following day Martin’s daughter prepared “lost dog” posters, distributing them throughout Keremeos and Cawston.
“One person in Keremeos recognized Odin as a dog he had found in his yard,” Martin continued, “he took Odin in, fed him dinner and gave him a drink. Following that, Odin wanted out, so he let him go.”
Later, a lady in Cawston then spotted the dog swimming across the river.
“She thought she recognized the dog as belonging to someone in Cawston,” Sarah said, “but then she spotted the lost dog poster at Cawston Store, and realized the dog was ours.”
Sarah believes the dog, who was quite familiar with the Cawston area, was slowly finding his way home. (The Martins live south of Cawston, near the Washington border).
“I guess he had quite an adventure,” laughed Sarah, “although I don’t understand why he was trying to cross the river.”
The dog had been missing two days before being returned to the Martins, who gratefully acknowledge the help they had received from the community in finding their dog through an ad in the Review last week.