THUNDER BAY — Princess Buttercup is enjoying the comforts of home again after wandering for two-and-a-half weeks around the outskirts of Thunder Bay while they were halfway around the world.
The Leonard family is crediting Facebook and family members, friends and strangers for the happy reunion.
Ryan and Natalie Leonard adopted the four-year-old husky-shepherd mix from a local animal rescue group when she was a pup.
They took Princess Buttercup to a rural boarding kennel before leaving for Malaysia on Oct. 1.
After just the second day, she found a way to open her cell door, then spent the night digging her way out of the compound.
Thousands of kilometres away In southeast Asia, the Leonards feared the worst for their pet.
"We were just extremely worried, because it's way outside the city limits. We knew she didn't know how to get back home," Ryan Leonard told Tbnewswatch.
He said they were concerned she might be killed by a wolf or lynx.
"We were checking the weather, and it was getting below zero overnight. Or it was raining. We were worried about what she would do for food, or she would get lost in the middle of nowhere and we'd never be able to find her," Leonard said.
He said his in-laws spent almost every day looking for the dog, which was sighted at various times at Hawkeye Lake, Silver Falls, and Murillo.
About 16 people were actively involved in the search, including a prospector friend who used a helicopter at one point.
The Leonards took up the search themselves and distributed flyers with their pet's photo when they returned to Thunder Bay.
Three days later, they caught a break.
"My wife called me and said she was on Facebook and somebody had posted a picture of her. She was on the corner of Sequoia and Clarkson. I drove over and could see on the grass the imprint where she had spent the night, but she was gone," Leonard said.
He was still in the neighbourhood, however, when a friend's sister-in-law looked out her window to see the dog running into her backyard.
She blocked the only exit, and Princess Buttercup's adventure was finally over.
"Her head was so high when she first saw me, it looked like her neck grew about three feet. I knelt down and she immediately jumped all over me. She was whining and I was crying. My wife was on the phone crying. And the people that found her, they saw the reunion and they were wiping tears from their eyes," Leonard recalled.
He said he now has a better appreciation for the usefulness of Facebook.
"It's funny. I avoided it for most of my life because I didn't like the misinformation that gets spread. But we probably couldn't have found her without Facebook. I kind of feel I need to give it a second chance."
Princess Buttercup lost nearly six pounds while she was on the loose, but is otherwise in good health.
