‘He was pretty much everywhere’: stray dog captured after more than a week on the loose in Timmins | CBC News

A stray dog that was on the run all over the northern Ontario city of Timmins for more than a week has been rescued by a dedicated group of volunteers.

On Mar. 6, Shawn Ouimette saw a post about the dog on Facebook and made his own social media post, asking for help in tracking down the dog. 

“There was no plan. We didn’t know where he was,” said Ouimette, who owns four rescue dogs. 

“He’s pretty fast. There was no catching him on foot. There was no way.”

Over the next week, people posted sightings of the stray dog from different locations around Timmins, from Schumacher to the highway leading out of the city to the north, prompting some to dub it “the 655 dog.”

“He was pretty much everywhere,” said Ouimette, who tracked the dog’s movements on a group chat with four other volunteer searchers.

On Wednesday, the dog was spotted in the north end of the city on a snowmobile trail and Ouimette jumped on his sled and headed down the trail.

“I ended up running into him on the trail,” he said. “I started feeding him a bit. He came closer and closer.”

‘Quite the experience’

Eventually, Ouimette says he managed to guide the dog into deep snow to slow him down.

“I just jumped off my sled right in front of him and started throwing broken bacon treats at him,” he said.

“He bit me a couple of times out of fear. I wrestled him for a good three or four minutes. I was exhausted. It was quite the experience.”

Ouimette said he has no idea where the dog came from, what its name is or if it has an owner, but said the pup has been checked over by a veterinarian and is staying in a foster home. 

He said he’s received over 100 messages from people asking how the dog is doing. 

“It feels good,” he said. “I don’t do it for publicity though. I’m just a dog lover.”