A Lakeshore family is sending out a thank you to the community for all the help in locating and eventually rescuing their dog from the ice-covered Lake St. Clair.
A. J. Bondy says around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, he let his two dogs, Charlie and Rex, out in the backyard of his family's home just off the Puce River canal that leads into Lake St. Clair.
Bondy says both dogs got out of the yard and went out onto the lake, and while Charlie came back, the other, a Bernedoodle named Rex, did not.
What followed was a 28-hour ordeal of trying to locate, track, and capture Rex, who wandered upward of two to three kilometres away from shore on the ice-covered sections of Lake St. Clair, moving along the shoreline between the family's home and all the way up to Belle River.
The family put out calls for help to police, fire, and the Coast Guard while also putting a message on social media.
Several members of the public joined the family in the search, using binoculars, a telescope, drones, ATVs, dirt bikes, and snowmobiles to locate and track Rex.
Bondy says they ended up spotting Rex out on the lake near the foot of Renaud Line Road Thursday afternoon, and Matt Leavoy took a snowmobile out to catch him.
"We were on the phone with the guy on the Ski-Doo too, and he's like, 'Do I need to go east or north?' So I was directing him and kind of seeing them pass each other once or twice. He found him and started chasing him. He got off, and the dog came to him, so he put him on the sled," he says.
Leavoy then passed the dog onto Jamie Leavoy and Steve Coulter, who walked Rex back to shore.
Bondy says they were very happy to get Rex back.
"It was just tears. Pretty much everybody was in tears, especially my wife, the kids, and myself. Even the people, it wasn't their dog; they were crying and happy. Everyone was super relieved and super happy," he says.
Bondy says there were a few times they spotted Rex, but he was too far out to get, and they just had to keep trying to track him.
"If it wasn't for the community and everyone on Facebook sharing. I can't even remember how many shares and thousand people commenting and stuff. It couldn't have been done without the community of Lakeshore, that's for sure," he says.
Bondy says Rex appears to be in good health and uninjured but is really tired.
The family was also aided by Jesse Schouten from Lucky K-9, who spent over eight hours helping the family search for the wayward pooch.