The tale of a deer

We wanted a dog. We VERY much wanted a dog.

We actually bought a house and moved across the country in large part because we wanted a dog. There were other factors that played into that decision, of course, but the desire to have a dog in our life was at the top of the ‘pros’ section of the pros and cons list for making that decision.

I had had a (great) dog while growing up, but my partner, Mary Ann, had grown up with cats and she wanted to know what it was like to have a dog in her life.

Many moons ago, when we were still back in Whistler and just thinking of buying a house, we started mulling over ideas for dog names for when we owned our own pet friendly property. Many names came & went, but Rufus is a name that kept floating to the top of the list. It just seemed like a 'dog's dog name'.

We had just moved into our beautiful new house in the country in August of ’21, so we wanted to get a feel for the area and settle into the house and community before we brought a new pet into it, so we had decided we would wait until 2022 to look for a dog.

I don't really know what prompted it, but for some reason on a Wednesday evening in October, I just decided to enter "puppies new brunswick" into the ol' Google machines.

It didn’t take much browsing before I came across the smiling, fluffy, floppy eared face of a young dog named Rufus. Not only did he tick a lot of the boxes we said we were looking for in a dog, but he looked a lot like my boyhood dog AND was already named Rufus.

After an extremely short discussion with Mary Ann I submitted our application with the SPCA the next day, we stopped in to meet him on the Friday, and we got approved to bring him home on the Saturday.

We’re lucky enough that we’ve got an acre and half property with a small forest as well as open access to the neighbouring forest which is over 100 acres, so tons of room to explore all that mother nature had to offer. As Rufus was new to the area, we took him on familiar routes and gradually expanded, trying to make sure that he would get to know the area and always be able to find his way home if he ever got out on his own.

(We were told by the SPCA that the reason he was there was because he was an ‘escape artist’ who kept jumping the fence of his former home, no matter how high they built it. Eventually, the owner had to give him up as he couldn’t afford to keep paying $750 every time the dog catcher caught him.)

So, a few months went by and Rufus settled right in and our love for such a great dog grew every day.

I was at home on December morning when I heard the phone ring. I saw that it was Mary Ann and my heart froze. Rufus had been taking her for a walk through the forest, so she’d likely only call if she needed help. I answered and heard a VERY distraught Mary Ann, as I’d feared. She said Rufus had got out of his harness and chased some deer and now he was gone. Our beloved pup who we'd only just got to know for a couple of months was now gone!

Apparently, they saw 3 deer in the woods and he charged after them, which managed to dislodge his shoulder from the harness. As Mary Ann was trying to fix that, he caught another whiff of them and decided to charge off into the forest after the deer, she was unable to stop him.

I brushed off the snow-covered car as fast as I could and went to meet her about 1.5km away, at the top of the road. Our very kind neighbour hopped on his snowmobile and went up and down the trails in the woods while our other very kind neighbour called all of her family (who all live nearby) and posted Rufus’ picture on local Facebook groups.

Mary Ann had dressed lightly, expecting to stay warm from the walk so was quite frozen by the time I got to her, but I had a car with heat so we swapped jackets.

I drove up and down the roads calling for him and she continued to call for him up near where she last saw him. Both our minds were trying desperately not to think of the possibilities of getting hit on the highway, getting shot by hunters, getting snagged and trapped in the forest, etc. (I later learned that a few German Shepherds in the area kept getting loose a few years ago and the park Rangers put out a notice that dogs chasing deer through the forests would be shot.)

Eventually we got a call from the neighbour with the snowmobile, though the connection was choppy (country living!) and we couldn't hear anything. So I headed home, thinking Rufus would be there. Of course, my mind kept bouncing to the nastier possibilities, but I just kept telling myself that all would be well. All would be well. All would be well…

Thankfully, Dave (the neighbour) had found him on the road out front of his house, trotting on a B-Line towards our house. He said Rufus saw him but didn't want to stop, like he was on a mission to get back home. But then Dave pulled some dog treats out of his pocket and Rufus re-thought his mission.

I pulled up in the car and Rufus came to the door all smiles. He hopped in the back seat and we went to pick up a frozen Mary Ann. When we got him back home, Rufus was happy but exhausted from charging full tilt through the snowy forest without any silly human dragging behind him.

It was a scary morning, but the good news is Rufus knew how to find his way home and seemed quite determined to get back to us. Everybody is now home, safe and sound and warm, and we can now look back at the scary memory from that day and smile because we’re all still happy together in a beautiful home in the country where we get to see deer, eagles, beavers, otters, and others on any given day.

Dave got a freshly baked loaf of apple pecan bread for his troubles.

Life with Rufus is better than we dreamed.