When their dog went missing, this family spent 3 weeks in the Manitoba wilderness to find her

When their dog went missing after a car crash, a family moving across the country went to great lengths, including living in an RV in the Manitoba wilderness, to find her. 

Rebekah Strang and her boyfriend, Yoshi Mori, are making their way with their extended family from Alberta to Prince Edward Island to take over a farm. Along for the ride is Molly, a two-year-old miniature Australian shepherd who belongs to Mori's mother. 

On May 6, somewhere near Hadashville, in eastern Manitoba, one of the family's vehicles hit a deer and was totalled. No one was injured, but in the chaos of the collision, Molly took off. 

"It happened so fast that she just bolted into the woods and there was nothing we could do," Strang said. 

"It was honestly heartbreaking."

Not wanting to leave Molly behind, the family began trying to search for her in the forested area she ran into. For the first couple of nights, they slept in their cars near the site of the collision just in case she came back, said Strang.

After a few days passed with no luck finding Molly, the family bought a retrofitted RV to live in while they continued their search. They also made up posters asking people to call them with sightings and got some advice from LEASH (which stands for Locating Elusive and Skittish Hounds), a group of women who specialize in finding dogs on the run. 

"We were really worried about all the predators and all that, but … we stayed positive and we never gave up our search," said Strang. "We liked to believe that she was still out there."

While reports of sightings came in, the family still couldn't catch up with Molly. Strang said her boyfriend's mother even got within 20 metres of Molly at one point, but the pup was still too scared to come to her. 

"She must have just been so shaken and terrified from the accident that she was just in a bit of a state," Strang said. 

LISTEN | Rebekah Strang tells Information Radio host Marcy Markusa about the search for Molly:

Days, then weeks went by, and the sightings of Molly began to slow down. Strang says while the family still had hope someone in Manitoba would find her, they didn't think they could continue their search any longer and were getting ready to move on.

But last Thursday, just one day before they were about to pack up and go, they got a call: someone found Molly in a greenhouse. 

"It was one of the workers of the greenhouse who was there doing maintenance. And he had no reason to look in that specific greenhouse. He just felt like he should check on a whim," she said. 

"And there she was, just kind of waiting for us."

At that point, Molly had been missing for more than three weeks and was in rough shape. She was emaciated and had hundreds of ticks on her — so many that she needed an emergency blood transfusion, said Strang.

The pup made a quick recovery, however, and the family are now back on the road on their way to P.E.I. 

Strang said they're grateful to the Manitobans who helped them reunite with the family dog. She said they even had people come out and spend hours helping them search for her. 

"I just wanted to thank the community for all of their work and everyone's help and looking for her," she said. 

"And I'm just so touched that no one ever gave up on her."