Entrant's First Name
Bev

Pet's Story
Tanner adopted me!

I was working in a small community in NW Manitoba in March of 2017. The company I worked for rented cabins for the crew near the construction site. Every day, a dog kept coming around, and the guys would feed him. On the last day of my shift, I had some leftover food, so I gave it to the dog.

After my shift, I stopped to say goodbye to the cabin owners, and the dog followed me to their place. The owner said he is a stray, and the only reason he is alive is because the crew had been feeding him. They told me to take him home. At the time, I lived with my Mom, and we had a very small backyard with no grass. It didn’t make sense to take on a dog at that point in my life. Shift work meant I was away for days on end, often up north. I left saying, that if he was there when I returned after my week of days off, I would consider it.

I left and drove an hour to the highway, and when I had a phone signal, I sent my Mom a picture of the dog and said that we almost had another family member. Mom said, “why didn’t you bring him home?” I mentioned he was a large dog, needed space, lots of exercise and training, and I wouldn’t be around some days to look after him. Mom said she would help, so I relented and said well maybe when I go back.

I drove another hour, but the dog kept entering my mind and I was thinking that maybe I should go back for him. To this day, I am not sure why I turned around after driving two hours of a six-hour drive towards home, but I did.

When I got back to the town, I had no idea where to find him, so I started at the cabin that I had been staying in. To my surprise he was sitting on the deck, at the top of the stairs, as if he was waiting for me to return. I helped him into the truck, as he had never been in one before, and proceeded on the six hour trip home.

On the Monday when I went into work, I found out I was laid off. I was never going to go back to that town in Northern Manitoba. That was 7 years ago, and he is the best dog ever! Tanner now waits every day on the stairs for me to come home from work.