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Kindness of strangers: Lucky the lab led to safety with homemade shoelace leash

John Archer gives thanks to a stranger from a rooming house on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside who found his beloved dog and walked her through the city to the SPCA so she could be reunited with her owner.

Do you have a story about the kindness of strangers? Get in touch with The Early Edition

CBC News ·
John Archer's dog Lucky photographed in the early 1990s, around the time she went missing in Vancouver and was returned by an anonymous hero. (Submitted/John Archer)

CBC Radio One's The Early Edition is asking listeners to share their stories of kindness from strangers for a series that runs on Thursday mornings.

This week's story is about a lost dog, her crestfallen owner and the anonymous Good Samaritan who made sure they were reunited.

Dear stranger,

It had been three days and I was frantic.

Lucky the lab was my first dog and she had wandered away from our East Vancouver home. I left the front door open for her and plastered the neighbourhood with posters, but it was looking bleak. Despair was starting to set in.

Then the call came.

A friend had dropped into the Vancouver SPCA location on a hunch and there was Lucky, living up to her name, safe and sound. I was overwhelmed with relief and raced to the shelter after work to collect my pal. 

I could hear Lucky barking when I walked in the front doors and the sound made me cry with relief. But before I went into the kennels to reunite with her an employee asked if I wanted Lucky's leash.

The odd thing was Lucky didn't have a leash.

But you had made one. You who saved her. You had taken old shoelaces and knotted them together to make a four-foot leash that you led Lucky to safety with.

John Archer, left, poses with his nieces and nephew and Lucky the lab in the early 1990s. (Submitted/John Archer)

The employee told me Lucky's rescuer was an elderly gentleman who lived in a rooming house hotel near the intersection of Main and Hastings in the Downtown Eastside.

You must have walked the three or so kilometres to the SPCA with her, knowing that taking her there would be her best chance at connecting with her owner.

Your thoughtfulness overwhelmed me. I still choke up thinking about the effort you took to do such a selfless deed.

I wish I knew who you were. It was a long time ago now (1991) but I am forever grateful.

Lucky passed away in 1997. You may no longer be with us either. But if you are, I hope you read this and know how much your act of kindness meant to me.

Thank you,

John Archer (and Lucky)

To hear John Archer share his story on The Early Edition click on the audio link below:

The Early Edition

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