Sookie, a Great Pyrenees, is recovering after getting caught in a snare and going missing for four days near her family’s rural property near Shellbrook, Sask.
The two-year-old dog regularly patrolled the farmyard with another Pyrenees named Nanook to scare off unwanted wildlife. One day, Nanook returned home, but Sookie didn’t.
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Sookie was missing for four days, returning home on Christmas Eve.
“She didn’t really look that bad, until she stood up,” owner John Kunard, who heard a thumping noise on his deck caused by the Sookie’s injured front leg, said.
A trapper’s snare was tangled around the leg.
In critical condition, Sookie was rushed to the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon about 130 kilometres away.
“I think it’s a miracle, really – that she got free,” Kunard said. “It’s really, really sad that it had to happen to her.”
Sookie received painkillers, antibiotics and medication to treat anxiety. Staff amputated part of the dog’s leg and plan to give her a prosthesis.
The new limb is required because the large dog’s weight would put too much stress on her remaining legs.
“We’ve certainly seen many cases that have gone missing and come back with more severe injuries than her, so I would say, yes it is a miracle,” Jiaying Ng, small animal surgery resident, said.
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A crowdfunding page has been set up to help with treatment, prosthesis and associated costs.
Sookie’s owners hope the family’s seven-week-old puppy Pebbles can assume Sookie’s guard dog duties alongside Nanook.
Conservation officers are now investigating the snare incident, which occurred near Sookie’s home, Hamilton said.
“There were several laws that weren’t followed, and had those laws been followed, we wouldn’t be in this position,” she said.