An aerial view of where Toby the dog (middle) was stranded along the Red Willow River (Photo: County of Grande Prairie)

By Shaun Penner

Dog Rescue

Unlikely sighting leads to rescue of dog along Red Willow River

Aug 16, 2019 | 11:41 AM

The odds of finding him were not high, but a local family has been reunited with their furry family member after a daring rescue by area fire departments.

A dog, missing for nearly a week, was rescued from a ledge along the Red Willow River on Wednesday with the help of three different fire departments.

County fire crews were called out to an area where the Red Willow and Wapiti Rivers meet on that day, when one firefighter just happened to notice a dog stuck on the ledge with no way to get out. Crews were responding to an unrelated call at the time.

That’s when Technical Search and Rescue Team Lead for the County Travis Skrepnek says crews got to work to help the dog.

“When we were dispatched, we got down there with the help of a couple of neighbouring fire departments, Grovedale and Wembley. We got out our equipment across the river, and then from there we had about an hour and a half hike, two of us took about an hour and a half hike to find the best vantage point for the puppy, to get down to him.”

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After the lengthy process to find the safest access point to the ledge, Skrepnek was rappeled about 60 feet down the ravine to where the dog was stuck. After testing out a few harnesses to get the dog secured, crews were able to lift him out of the ledge and bring him to safety.

Image showing how far down Toby was on the ledge (Photo: County of Grande Prairie)

“He was pretty tired and thankfully he was very cooperative, I could tell he wanted help.”

Once the dog was rescued, crews were then tasked with finding the owner.

“So, when we got back, we figured this dog had to have been owned by somebody, he was a well cared for dog,” said Wembley Fire Captain TJ Johnson. “We had firefighters get on social media, check all the local groups for Wembley, Hythe, Beaverlodge. We found Craig’s post on Facebook and contacted him that way.”

Rescue crews with Toby after the daring rescue (Photo: County of Grande Prairie)

The owner of the dog was Craig Rigler. He had last seen his dog, Toby, on August 7 near Spring Lake, which is over 100 km away from where he was rescued.

“It was way overwhelming. There was tears… disbelief that he was so far. I couldn’t believe it was him,” said Rigler. “It was an emotional rollercoaster that you couldn’t even imagine.”

“My son had given up on him. He said ‘Dad, Toby’s dead. He has to be dead’. So, it’s really… life that he came back.”

Now that Toby has been returned home to his family, Rigler couldn’t thank everyone involved in the rescue enough, that helped him, and his family, reunite with their beloved dog.

“I want to say thank you to everybody that participated in this. You went way out and above and beyond what anybody would do. It is seriously amazing,” said Rigler. “If I can give back anything, I will. I would do the same for anybody else.”

Check out the video of the incredible rescue below, produced by the County of Grande Prairie.