Owner reunited with puppy days after she went missing near Merritt

Penticton's Mark Wright wasn't sure he'd ever see his puppy again after she got spooked by a passing truck on the highway just outside of Merritt on Dec. 22.

He had stopped to let his two dogs go to the washroom and to take a break himself. That's when eight-month-old Rubia got scared by the blast of air breaks and pulled out of her collar.

"She literally freaked," said Wright.

"I was sick to my stomach. It was the worst feeling by far I've ever had in my life."

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He ran after her in the socks and sandals he was wearing for the drive, but wasn't able to keep up. He says within minutes she was out of reach.

After about a kilometre of chasing her, he realized he was not going to catch her. That's when he called his sister in Kamloops to let her know that he was going to be late and that his puppy was missing. It was her who connected Wright with Angel's Animal Rescue in Merritt.

'Glimmer of something'

The shelter put out the call on social media that the dog was missing and many people in the area helped out with the search.

At close to 11:30 p.m. on Dec. 26, two women were driving along the highway near Merritt when they noticed the puppy.

"You know when you see deer on the highways, you might see a glimmer from their eyes, these ladies saw just a glimmer of something and then they slowed down," said shelter president Judanna Dawn.

"They noticed it was a malnourished dog in the middle of the highway and kind of wandering around aimlessly, not knowing what to do with herself."

Dawn was calledto pick up the dog from the side of the highway. She says she had a feeling it might be Rubia, but she wasn't sure until she arrived.

"She was just exhausted and trying to find her way back to where she went missing," said Dawn.

'I couldn't have been happier'

She called up Wright to let him know his pet has been found. He hadbeen looking for the dog every day since she was lost.

"The last day and a half or so, I hadn't seen any fresh tracks so I was kind of mortified at that and I kind of resigned myself that bad things were going to come of this," he said.

Then he got the call that the dog has been found late at night.

"She told me that she has my girl beside her here. I screamed, woke up everybody in the house."

"I couldn't have been happier," he said.

The two have now been reunited and Mark Wright says Rubia is in relatively good condition. She's lost a lot of weight and has a few scrapes on her nose and her paws are worn down, but he says she's doing well and glad to be reunited with her family.

"In this day and age, there's a lot of bad things happening and it's an absolute honour to be part of such a loving thing that happened," he said.

"There are good people out there who care."