Dog finds his best fur-friend after 12 hours on major highway

When Frankie the golden-doodle was let into the fenced-in yard by her owner Arthur Manhire around 8 a.m., his wife Liv Taggart was upstairs in the nursery feeding their baby.

They noticed after a few minutes she wasn't in the backyard. With several dog parks in their area, they figured she was playing with some of her neighbourhood friends, like Hugo the samoyed.

Hugo and his owner Nick Brouwer often go on walks with Frankie and Manhire.

"Nick and his wife actually realized that [Frankie] had made her way on to [Highway] 417," Taggart said.

The family lives just off Island Park Drive near the exit from the highway, and they think the dog went on and off the highway three times.

Tracked through spottings

With the help of strangers on the Ottawa and Valley Lost Pet Network Facebook page, as well as friends and family, Taggart and Brouwer started to track Frankie.

"I started going out with Hugo and I probably spent the morning, probably three hours, looking and with no luck," said Brouwer.

In the later afternoon as the sun set, there were some more sightings of Frankie around Carling Avenue and the highway, and then near the Maitland Avenue exit, Brouwer said, so he grabbed Hugo and "did a few laps in the car but didn't see her."

She reacted to Hugo's barking and finally got her to come over for some treats.— Nick Brouwer

He decided to take Hugo out of the car and walk around a bit.

"It was starting to get dark and it was pretty icy, so it wasn't really ideal conditions and I was on my way back to the car with Hugo," Brouwer said, but then Hugo started tugging.

The dog jumped onto a barrier and began barking like crazy and his tail wagged as he peered off into a wooded area.

"I, all of a sudden, see a head pop out about three metres in, and I initially thought it was a deer, but it was Frankie starting to look over," he said.

"I was calling for her and whatever, she didn't react to that, she reacted to Hugo's barking and finally got her to come over for some treats."

Taggart said she was at her "lowest" when it started to get dark, feeling exhausted and worried after the long search for Frankie. She had all but given up hope.

"When Nick called and said, 'I found her.' I actually just said, 'You know, call Arthur, call my husband,' and I kind of hung up on him," she recalled.

"He caught me at my worst, for sure. And I honestly didn't believe that she was found, and that she was OK."

'My head was spinning'

Taggart said it took a little while for her to stop worrying, even after Frankie was safely at home.

"It was crazy to me to think that this dog survived all of this. And she came home, she was quite shaken," she said.

"I didn't know, my head was spinning honestly. And she actually did make it home uninjured. I didn't believe it for a while."

Taggart wanted to thank everyone who helped and felt grateful to live in a city that jumped to help in her time of need.

As for Hugo, Brouwer hopes the ordeal doesn't go to his head.

"He's like demanding treats all the time now. Looking at us from outside like we need to be non-stop ... showering him with attention," Brouwer said with a laugh.