A favourite country song of mine by Canadian artist George Canyon called "Sunshine" has a line in it that goes: "Taking leaps of faith when it doesn't even make sense," and that line could not ring any more true after the events of this past week.
You have all heard by now that the search dog who was involved in the pursuit of missing Bloodhound Ellie Mae went missing during the search for her and thankfully he was found on Tuesday evening.
Whether you call it a simple coincidence or believe in the presence of the Divine, the events that led up to his rescue were indeed miraculous, reminiscent of a Disney made-for-TV movie!
The dog of the story, Griffin, held a special place in my heart. Not only did he belong to one of my best friends Maureen Fielding, who took over my dog training business on the North Shore, but he was, in essence, my baby. My dogs Zumi and Piper are his mother and father and I felt great pride when Maureen told me years ago that she was training him as a search dog.
So when Maureen said he was missing my heart split in two. The feeling of the earth slipping away under your feet is not an exaggeration of terms by those who live in an inflated emotional state. Trust me, it is an actual feeling.
But a funny thing happens when we live with dogs - or any animal that is closely connected to humans, really - you learn to listen to your instinct, as they do, and my instinct told me that everything was going to be OK.
It would have been easy for me and the hundreds of people who showed up to help in his search over a six-day period to begin to think the worst and to slip into that fearful state of mine. Everything was against us.
He was lost in a remote area of the Powerline Trail, not terribly familiar with the area and the weather was far from ideal. It poured rain for three days straight and snowed for the next three.
How could a short-haired lean dog like Griffin survive in the snow and freezing cold with no food or shelter?
Yet, that thought never entered the minds of anyone on the search or at least it never entered long enough to give it much credence. We all took a huge, collective leap of faith and believed beyond the odds that this dog was going to be found alive and well.
Faith is a word that I think most of us take for granted. We have blind faith that we will wake up every morning, we have blind faith that we will arrive to work safely, we have blind faith that we have a warm home to come to at the end of the day and it isn't until that faith is tested that we actually begin to acknowledge its power. That usually only happens after the miracle has been granted.
Faith conquered fear for those six days Griffin was missing. It was clear that Griffin never gave into fear and thought he would never be found. His faith in getting home to Maureen and his family was evident, otherwise he would not be alive. Faith conquered the fear of the many, many individuals who came out and searched the trails, backyards and lanes and put up posters and called local shelters regularly. The people whose own trained search dogs worked ceaselessly for hours through forest and urban areas and those who literally camped out overnight in a van with their doors wide open in the hopes Griffin might find his way back to the area he was lost.
Faith is a powerful thing. "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you," Matthew 17: 20
I hope every person who came out to help find Griffin as well as every person who had positive thoughts is blessed this Christmas and thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Joan Klucha has been working with dogs for over 15 years in obedience, tracking and behavioural rehabilitation. Contact her at k9kinship.com.
