Costa Rican couple desperate to reunite with dogs stranded in Edmonton

Gordo the Chihuahua mix nervously yaps and paces around an exercise yard. Nearby is Shadow, a Husky mix. She's indulging on a strip of bacon offered by caretakers at Country Kennels Bed and Biscuit. 

The pair are recovering at the kennel south of Edmonton after a harrowing series of flights to Costa Rica and back this week, during which they were left in their crates for three days with little food or water. 

It started on Tuesday, when the dogs were loaded onto an Air Canada flight to be reunited with their humans after an unexpected 10 week separation.

Just before Christmas, temporary Canadians Hernan Duran and his wife, Gabriela Garro, were denied an extension of their visas, so they voluntarily left Edmonton to return to Costa Rica.

A travel ban on animals at the time prevented the couple from taking Shadow and Gordo with them, but they assumed they'd be back soon.

"We had moments of anguish because we could not bring our animals," Garro said in an email to CBC News.

They left their dogs in the care of Belinda Brunnenkant, the owner of Country Kennels.

When the winter travel ban was finally lifted in February, the couple began to look for ways to bring the dogs south.

It was too expensive to fly them unaccompanied, so they posted a message on the local Facebook page "Latinos Unidos en Edmonton" asking for a volunteer to escort the pair in exchange for a free ticket.

Freddy Ruiz stepped up and agreed to fly from Edmonton to Toronto and on to San Jose with the dogs, who were in the cargo hold.

The family would finally be reunited, Garro said. 

"Since having no children all our affection and love is for these two living beings," she said. 

Ruiz filled out the necessary travel documents at the airport and said he had no issues getting the dogs on the flight.

Everything went fine until they landed in the Central American country later that day, Ruiz said. That's when the dogs were turned away at customs for not having the proper paperwork.

"The agent, she told me, 'You are not able to go out with those dogs because you don't have this paper,'" Ruiz said.

Before leaving Edmonton, Duran and Garro had arranged veterinary checks for the dogs. They ensured they had health certificates in preparation for their trip, but it it turned out they were missing health certificates from the Government of Canada. 

Garro offered to have the forms couriered the next day, but said the official at the airport refused to wait.

Shadow and Gordo were left in their kennels and ordered back to Edmonton the next day.

Ruiz called the couple, who were waiting just outside customs. They were devastated by the news and begged to see their pups before losing them again.

Garro said she was given five minutes.

"When I saw them I could not contain my tears. Gordo, the little puppy, started to cry and begged me to open the door of the cage and take him out of that prison," she said.

"Shadow ... did not answer when I talked to her. She was totally tired and just raised her head and looked at me with eyes that told me 'Mom help me.'"

Despite begging officials to keep the dogs in the country because of their lengthy ordeal, Garro said her dogs were deported anyway and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

Flight to nowhere

Hours later, when Duran and Garro tried to track their dogs, they said Air Canada could not tell them where they were, or when they'd be landing in Edmonton.

"It was hours of terror," Garro said. 

Brunnenkant said she was willing to pick up the dogs from the airport in Edmonton, but they were nowhere to be found. 

"They couldn't track down their flight, nobody knew where they were. So now you're worrying. These poor animals, where are they? Have they been out of their crates?" she said.

The animals were eventually found Thursday at a veterinary clinic in Leduc, near the Edmonton International Airport. They were sent there by Air Canada when they were not claimed at the airport. 

Brunnenkant picked them up and by this time, Shadow and Gordo had been in their crates for three days with little food or water.

"Their bedding was soaked and they were smelly and quite stressed," Brunnenkant said.

"Shadow is about nine or 10 years old and she's now peeing blood."

In a statement to CBC News on Friday, Air Canada said the animals were never lost and staff knew where they were the entire time they were flying.

However, they did confirm the airline didn't have the proper contact information for the owners to let them know their dogs were on the ground in Edmonton. The number they had was for Ruiz and he was in transit. 

"All I know is the whole night they were just trying to find out any kind of information on them. And anytime they got a bit of information, it seemed to be wrong," Brunnenkant said. 

Doggy charity

Despite missing a vital government form, Garro firmly believes her dogs should never have been sent back to Edmonton at all. She wants those responsible to be held accountable for the series of events that left her dogs in such poor condition.

"It is a violation of animal rights," Garro said. "They take advantage because they cannot defend themselves and speak."

How would you feel if you were locked in a cage for 40 hours with little water and you had to sleep between your urine and your stool?- Gabriela Garro

"How would you feel if you were locked in a cage for 40 hours with little water and you had to sleep between your urine and your stool?"

Brunnenkant says she wonders why the lovable dogs now under her care had to go through this at all.

"It's shocking, because you would think for the animal's concern, you would just quarantine them a day or two, get the vet to look at them and say everything is fine because they did have vet papers with them," she said. 

"So I don't understand why they would just turn them around not thinking of their welfare and ship them right back."

Shadow and Gordo are now doing better, although Shadow is very thin.

The pair will stay at the kennel for now. It's unclear if another flight to Costa Rica is in their future.

Meantime, Brunnenkant says she wants to help as much as possible. Her business is waiving the daily boarding charge of more than $30 dollars per dog.

"We've volunteered our services so the dogs can stay with us," she said. "We'll care for them and their food and so on, and hopefully they can raise the funds to get the vet certificate signed and get all the paperwork back in order again."

"For now, they're safe."