A local helicopter company came to the rescue of an eight-year-old German shepherd on Monday morning after she spent a cold and snowy weekend stranded on a gravel bar in the middle of the Fraser River.
But the happy ending was far from a sure thing as days passed with Lucy trapped by rough waters.
"It was like having a death in the family and going through a funeral, that kind of stress," said owner Karen Kellett. "You put your whole life on hold, you can't think of anything else and you're just trying to figure out the logistics of how this rescue is going to occur."
Lucy, who lives on a 1,700-acre farm in the Red Rock area about 40 kilometres south of Prince George went on a "walkabout" with Nelson, a neighbour's dog, on Friday afternoon, said Kellett.
Lucy didn't return home that night and the next day Kellett called the neighbour, Carol Gass, who told her Nelson was safe at home but was soaking wet when he returned.
"That's when we realized something was amiss," said Kellett.
Kellett's son Peter pulled out his cross country skis and tried following tracks on Saturday morning to no avail. In the afternoon, Kellett and her husband, David, went skiing in the other direction "and as soon as I got up onto a field that had a view of the river that's when I saw her sitting there."
Lucy was on the edge of the sandbar about 75 metres of open water away. She was so close yet so far because of the strong current, rapids and icy ledges, which lined the banks for a few hundred metres to the south where the river narrows.
"We just tried to stay calm, we didn't make any motions or call her or anything," Kellett said.
On Sunday, Kellett and Gass phoned everyone they could think of -- police, search and rescue, the volunteer fire department, anyone they knew who owns a boat -- but they were also leery of putting anyone in danger.
"We really did not want to risk human life on the river," Kellett said. "The ice on the edge is just too dangerous. We canoe out there in the summertime, we have no problem with that, but the logistics of getting into the boat with the ice shelf out there was just too hazardous.
"We still didn't have a solution by 3 o'clock on Sunday afternoon so the dog was out there for a third night."
Gass is also the morning host of The Wolf 97 radio station and when she mentioned the issue over the airwaves on Monday, listener Debbie Marsolais responded by calling her husband, Ray Marsolais, Pacific Western Helicopters (PWH) director of maintenance, who told PWH president Ray Curry.
It didn't take long for a helicopter crew to take to the air.
"As soon as you hear that the dog was there since Friday and they couldn't figure out how they were going to get it across, we just said 'Yeah, let's just see what we can do,'" Curry said.
Kellett joined the crew who landed about 20 metres away from Lucy tucked underneath a fallen snag. She was in good shape, even though she missed a few meals, said Kellett, and looked untroubled with the flight back.
For the half-hour of flying time, PWH would normally bill about $600 but this one was on the house.
"When somebody needs help... the instinct is to do what you can when you have the means ," said Curry. "That's just what we did and I'm pretty sure if other people had the means they would do the same thing."
Kellett said she wouldn't have been able to pay for a helicopter rescue.
"[The cost] was just prohibitive," she said.
She had plenty of accolades for PWH, who delivered a happy ending to a worrying weekend.
"It was a huge sense of relief for me," said Kellett. "Thankfully, huge thankfully, they gave us a call. They were fabulous."
