Barbara Haskell tries to control Koko for a photo, but Koko has other priorities. Koko disappeared on a walk when a woman took him and dropped him in Grand Forks. (Richard McGuire photo)
Koko, a chocolate lab who lives on Anarchist Mountain, loves to chase cars, but he’s terrified to get into one.
That’s why his disappearance on Tuesday, Aug. 12 and his reappearance later in Grand Forks was so puzzling to his owners Garth and Barbara Haskell.
“We have lost our precious dog Koko who lives at Regal Ridge on Anarchist Mountain,” Barbara wrote that evening in an email to the Osoyoos Times, which we reposted on Facebook. “My husband took him and the other dog for a walk at 1 p.m. and he didn’t come back. Hubby saw him go over to the rest area by the Summit Café. He has not returned and it is 8:46 p.m. He is a four-year-old chocolate lab/hound mix who is friendly, likes to chase vehicles, is sloppy with his water and loves milk.”
Before long, the Osoyoos Times’ Facebook post was shared 58 times, reaching more than 2,700 people. Word was out.
Meanwhile, Garth Haskell was phoning dog pounds throughout the region the following day to see if any had found Koko.
“I called everywhere from Kelowna right straight through to Cranbrook,” said Garth.
After leaving a voice message with animal control services in the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary, the Haskells received a call back on Wednesday from John Smith, the animal control officer. He had a dog in Grand Forks matching Koko’s description.
He also had part of the story of how Koko, a dog that’s afraid to get into a car, made it from Regal Ridge to Grand Forks.
It all began when Garth was walking his dogs on Tuesday, Aug. 12 allowing them to run freely in the gravel pit near the Anarchist Mountain rest stop.
“My dogs are marmot hunters and he was probably chasing a marmot or something up through the rest area,” said Garth. “I was still way behind and when I got up there he was gone. I didn’t think a lot about it because come four o’clock he’s always by his food dish. But he never showed up, so I went back. He wasn’t there and I became worried, so we started driving all night and couldn’t see anything but rattlesnakes up there.”
The Haskells worried that Koko might have had an encounter with a bear or a rattlesnake.
Smith, however, said he received a phone call on Tuesday from a woman who had picked up Koko at the rest stop.
“I suggested just to leave it because it probably lives in the neighbourhood,” Smith said. “She said she was bringing it this way, and I said to go to the Midway RCMP and see if they can help you because that area is not our jurisdiction.”
Against Smith’s advice, the woman drove on to Grand Forks with Koko.
Garth speculates that she might have taken on more than she could handle.
“He’s about 110 or 115 pounds and he does not like getting in vehicles,” said Garth. “He chases them, but he won’t normally get in. I don’t know how she got him in.”
Koko probably got rambunctious in the car, he said.
The woman tried to drop Koko off at a veterinarian’s office in Grand Forks.
“I went down to the vet’s and I told the lady that we can’t take it because we are not a shelter,” said Smith. “I said you have to take it to the Trail SPCA. So she just released the dog in the parking lot. When she released the dog, it was at large, so it was just a matter of me reaching down and picking up the dog and we took care of him.”
Smith believes the woman was headed for Cranbrook or somewhere nearby. She left before he could get a license plate and so he was unable to ticket her for abandoning a dog.
Under the law, the woman was responsible for the dog once she had care and control of it, he said.
“This has happened many times,” said Smith. “People see animals on the road in country areas and they think they’re abandoned, but this dog is in perfectly good shape. You do the Good Samaritan thing and think that you’re picking up a dog to protect it, but maybe it walks there every day of its life.”
On Thursday morning, the Haskells drove to Grand Forks and sure enough the dog in custody was Koko.
“I’m sure glad to have him back,” said Garth.
A rambunctious Koko had difficulty sitting still for a photo, and when the Osoyoos Times photographer left the Haskell’s home, Koko chased his car down the lane all the way to the road.
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
