Last Friday John, Meaghan and their son Clayton Maracle were frantic when they discovered that their two boxer’s, Cricket and Lilly, had escaped from their yard.
Thankfully, because of good Samaritans Lynda and Ron Goodridge the story had a happy ending.
That morning the Goodridge’s decided to head down to the Old Fort to do some duck watching.
Upon arriving Lynda saw something in the water, but thought it was a bird on a rock. When they got closer, they realized that it was a white boxer.
“We could see the dog shivering from the shore, she was about 50 feet out in knee deep water with no one around,” said Lynda.
Lynda said when she spotted Cricket in the water she wasn’t moving much, just her head.
“We thought she was injured or in a lot of distress because she wasn’t attempting to move. She would move her head if we called her, but her pupils were dilated and her head kept dipping down,” she said.
Ron saw a police car not far and waved down Sgt. John Vujasic to tell him what they had spotted in the water. Within minutes he was on the phone with the SPCA, who quickly sent someone down to rescue Cricket.
Despite the ordeal for the two dogs, Cricket and Lilly only had minor injuries. Cricket had a little bit of hypothermia and some skin irritation from being in the water, while Lilly had a couple scratches on her nose and bush burn on her stomach.
“The real hero here was the guy from the SPCA, he didn’t hesitate at all. He walked right into the water over moss covered slippery rocks and brought her to shore,” said Ron.
The morning started out like any other for the Maracle’s, and when Meaghan left in the morning she didn’t realize Cricket and Lilly had left the yard.
“I thought they were in the basement with my husband, so I didn’t even think to check for them. My husband called me later in the morning and told me the girls were gone,” she said.
Upon hearing that their dog’s had run away the Maracle’s called as many people as they could to help them track down the dogs, who have never escaped the yard before.
Because the SPCA had put four-year-old Cricket on Facebook as a rescue, word spread to Meaghan quickly that her dog had been found and rescued. When Meaghan called the SPCA she asked about her dogs, and at that time they said they had only found one in the chilly waters.
“I thought Lilly had drowned,” said a tearful Meaghan. “You couldn’t have told me otherwise. I thought she was gone.”
Through all of this Clayton never gave up hope that both dogs would make it home safely. And not long after she received a call saying that Lilly, the two-year-old pup of Cricket, was seen wandering around town.
“I started calling around and people had said they saw her in different places all throughout the day,” said Meaghan.
With the hope of finding Lilly returning, she was located in some bush where they eventually found her and brought her home.
With both Cricket and Lilly reunited with the Maracle’s by 6 p.m., that evening Meaghan said this was a story with a very happy ending.
“Anything could have happened, we live close to the QEW, the current could have taken Cricket or coyotes could have got to Lilly if we hadn’t found her.”
Meaghan said the two dogs got out because after a friend left the night before the gate wasn’t properly latched shut and no one thought to check it.
The dogs were found about a mile from home and Meaghan said it’s very unusual that they would separate.
“We think maybe Cricket got into the water and was carried by the current until she was lucky enough to get caught up on a rock and maybe at that point Lilly went her separate way,” she said.
“The ordeal has made Cricket a little shy, she’s a little leery now,” said Meaghan.
“We didn’t want people to assume or think that we dumped our dogs. You hear stories like that all the time,” said Meaghan.
Meaghan, who held Cricket close, said she was forever in debt to the Goodridge’s.
Lynda and Ron said they were just happy this had such a happy ending and that Cricket had a good home to go to.
“We were worried that she was abandoned. We thought if she didn’t have a home we’d have to adopt her,” laughed Lynda.
(Fort Erie Times - Nov 23, 2012)
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