It took searches by car, foot, Facebook, and even drone to locate Mary and Brent Hummel’s beloved Gret Pyrenees, Jasper.
The neighborhood’s penchant for pre-4th of July fireworks is what likely startled him enough to make a run for it on July 2nd of this year. But the Hummels still have no idea how their dog got out of their backyard in Castlegar, British Columbia.
“I don’t exactly know what happened but there was a lot of fireworks going on in this neighborhood,” Mrs. Hummel told Daybreak South host Chris Walker. “He had actually never disappeared before so I have no idea exactly how he disappeared.”
At roughly 140-pounds, with stark white fur, Jasper should have been pretty easy to find.
Alas, their search ended in failure and the couple was devastated.
That’s when they took to Facebook to post photos, hoping someone had spotted Jasper out and about.
But their first sighting only deepened the mystery. Jasper had been spotted, but the person who say him was over 8 miles away in the town of Genelle. And Jasper was seen on the other side of the Columbia River.
The mighty Columbia is the largest river in all of North America that empties into the Pacific Ocean, running through the Canadian Rockies. It moves fast.
Jasper shouldn’t have been able to get across without making an exhausting and near-impossible swim.
And yet, there he was.
Until he disappeared again.
Apparently, Jasper has some advanced swimming skills that no one knew about.
The dog was spotted again the next morning, back on the side of the river where he lives.
According to the CBC:
“The person who saw him tried to coax him over to her, but he ended up swimming toward a sand bar. Search and rescue was called in to try to locate Jasper, and members of a nearby trailer park did what they could to try to help.”
Nevertheless, no one was able to get a handle on the dog so that he could be returned to his owners.
The Hummels knew Jasper was out there, but they simply couldn’t get him back.
And that’s when they got ANOTHER message later in the day saying someone spotted Jasper on the “wrong” side of the river yet again.
That means the Great Pyrenees crossed the Columbia River no less than 3 times!
“I remember looking at this river and just crying my eyes out because it’s like there’s no way this dog can swim this river again because it’s just so awful,” Mrs. Hummel told the CBC.
It had been three days since the dog had gone missing when the Hummels received an offer from a good samaritan to help look for Jasper using their drone.
The dog had made an exhaustive journey and while his family never gave up, they did consider that the dog might have drowned had he been trying to cross again.
But they took the drone operator up on the offer and drove along with him during the search.
And that’s when Mr. Hummel mentioned that it was likely all in vain.
“My husband just said, ‘You know what, this isn’t Hollywood, it’s not like this dog’s going to just walk in the middle of the road and run towards us,'” Mary Hummel said.
Well, now she can tell her husband he was wrong about something.
“And 60 seconds later, right there on the road, there was Jasper,” she recalled.
It turns out they did get their Hollywood ending.
While Jasper ran towards them, it was a slow reunion since his toes were all cut up from his ordeal. But it took him just a few days to heal and largely recover from the whole adventure.
The Hummels are, of course, beyond thrilled to have their big, beloved dog back.
“It was a miracle,” Mary Hummel exclaimed.
Be sure to scroll down below to see the emotional moment when Jasper was reunited with his family.
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