The 6-year-old Husky is a survivor in every sense. His owners Clive and Carol-Ann Jackson rescued her from abuse, neglect and abandonment.
“She became a huge part of our family,” Clive said.
One week ago the couple moved into their new home in Priddis, Alta. They loved the views in the tiny hamlet and its proximity to both family and the mountains.
The home needed a little work, they hired contractor Gerry Hafichuk to help. Among his projects was to build a gate to keep Cooper on the back deck. But it wasn’t built fast enough and Cooper escaped.
“She runs at 40 kilometres an hour and as soon as we saw her go we were worried,” Clive said.
“The electrician saw her out on the fairway and said, ‘Is that your dog?’ I tried to call her to come back and she bolted through the trees and I lost her,” Hafichuk said.
“That was it. Cooper was never to be seen again.”
The fear of the ‘what if’s’ nearly paralyzed them. They worried about wildlife and traffic on Highway 22X, right near their home. She was seen crossing the busy road a couple of times.
Clive called his son Simon and his daughter-in-law Jill Cooper.
“I got a frantic phone call from Dad, he said, ‘Cooper is gone’ and yelling it repeatedly and we hopped into the car,” Simon said.
“I thought we had a zero-point-zero one per cent chance we would find her,” Jill said.
As Clive and Carol-Ann desperately kept calling her name, neighbours noticed and offered to help.
“It was like a miracle, just incredible,” Clive said.
“People started posting on Facebook, others started driving, others were calling friends and the whole thing gained momentum in a matter of an hour or two.”
Flyers were out within hours. sightings from strangers and steady updates from neighbours kept the family hopeful through the night.
Genevieve Hunter offered to make a post on a Bragg Creek community lost pets page.
“Within nine minutes, a lady posted a picture of the dog,” Hunter said. “It blew my mind the power of people and the power of social media. I’d never seen it work like that.”
After several close call attempts of trying to coax Cooper into cars, a sleepless night passed. At first light Simon and Jill headed towards Bragg Creek.
“An amazing citizen launched this entire miracle. A gentleman who saw her posted photographic evidence of her and we knew where to go,” Simon said. “We created a perimeter so she couldn’t get by.”
“It was 21st century dog searching, social media, mapping, coordinating people on phones and Twitter,” Simon said.
Just a short distance from Kananaskis, Cooper was ready to be reunited.
“Her face was like, thank goodness, and she came running into my arms and we had the longest hug,” Jill said.
“Her paws were bleeding and she was shaggy and worried, but otherwise okay,” Clive said. “We figured she probably ran as far as 40 kilometres.”
“Eventually, two kind people showed up with a leash they said:, ‘Is this Cooper?’ They burst into tears,” Jill said.
“Everybody was surrounding Cooper. There wasn’t a dry eye. Maybe around 25 people just in tears, it was pandemonium and fantastic and unbelievable,” Clive said.
“It absolutely restores your faith in humanity. It was extraordinary.”
In the nearly five decades they were in Vancouver, the Jackson’s said they met more people in the span of five days in a hamlet they can truly call home.