Dog's tale of survival

Stewy is a fighter, a survivor.

His tale of 15 days lost, alone in the bush after a horrific car crash on the Coquihalla Highway should be the stuff of legend.

But, we'll never know the lengths he went to stay safe before finally being rescued Sunday morning.

Stewy isn't a young boy or a man. Stewy is a two- or three-year-old dog.

"It's amazing. I can't believe this little dog lasted 15 days," said Kimberly Gillis with Vernon-based Saving Grace Dog Rescue.

"I didn't see any tracks and no other animal was eating his food. I'm from the mountains, and I know the different tracks and from where I had to scale to get up to this little cliff area. He had quite the little path going. It was amazing."

Gillis said the story began more than two weeks ago when a woman wanted to adopt the Griffon-cross.

"She decided she wanted to be an adoptee.... We usually give people a week to see if there is a fit. On her way down, there was an accident," said Gillis.

"I believe he (Stewy) was thrown from the vehicle, which is the only way he could have survived because it was an end-over-end."

Gillis said she went back to the area where the accident occurred periodically and put out food and blankets with her scent on them to try and attract Stewy.

She had no luck finding him until this past weekend.

"Saturday, I stopped again because I was going down to take a look. And, I was going back to the vehicle, and he was there.

"He was looking at me, but he was too scared to come to me. He was standing on a part of the mountain slope watching me. I spent all day there. I was there until 11 at night."

Live traps were brought in and set up that evening.

The next morning, he was found safe inside one of the live traps.

Gillis said over the course of the 15 days Stewy only lost a little more than a pound.

She said it was almost eerie that he was able to survive – almost as if other animals were protecting him.

Stewy spent Monday with a vet and, other than being riddled with ticks, was in pretty good shape.

"Other than giving him some tick medicine and some deworming, (the vet) was amazed. He has some lumps and bumps all over him, and you could tell he hit his head. I actually found his harness in a tree."

Instead of adopting out Stewy, Gillis said she has decided to keep him.

"It would take somebody very, very, very special before I'm going to give him up because he's very timid. He's from a home where an elderly woman passed away. He's still scared of me," said Gillis.

"I've got attached, and he won't leave me alone now. I don't think I can do that to him now."