When the staff working in the Langley RCMP Radio Room took a report of a loose dog yesterday afternoon, they had no idea where it would lead.
The caller told the operator that a dog was running loose in the area of 96 Avenue and Telegraph Trail. Since the dog did not appear to be aggressive or a hazard, the caller explained that this wasn’t a police matter and gave some ideas on how they could assist the dog. Moments later, a second call was received about the same dog.
One of the operators in the room began to wonder if the loose dog might be “Zeus”. Many will recall, Zeus had been ejected from a vehicle that rolled over on Highway One back on February 15th. After the rollover, officers from Langley searched the area for Zeus who had been seen with a large gash on his head and was running scared. After about an hour of searching through the bushes in the snow, the officer gave up and resumed his other duties. He returned to the area later unofficially and continued to search for Zeus – sadly, to no avail.
Zeus then captured many hearts as a plea went out over social media including a GoFundMe page in an effort to raise funds to hire Pet Searches.
The snow and cold weather continued and no reported sightings of Zeus
At least until yesterday…
A few more questions to the caller, it became apparent to the operators in our Radio Room that Zeus had been spotted. Several local businesses assisted in containing the dog however the dog was very scared and didn’t seem to want to be approached. The operator provided the name ‘Zeus’ to the caller in the hopes that it was Zeus and hearing his name would ease his fear.
The name ‘Zeus’ was magic! As soon as he heard his name, he calmed down and starting kissing and licking the caller. Now that the dog was close enough, the caller could read the dog’s caller and confirmed it did say “Zeus.” The operators found the story of Zeus on social media and immediately made contact with his family.
A family friend was able to transport the much thinner Zeus to his family after living off the land for 10 days.
Needless to say, there were a lot of really happy people that day…. And one SUPER happy dog. This was a welcome change of focus in the midst of a really busy day with a very happy ending. A big thank you to everyone who called in. Getting Zeus home was a very big group effort!
(News Release from the Langley RCMP)