After more than a week running scared in freezing temperatures, a rescue puppy is home with his family in the South Okanagan thanks to a huge community effort.
Oliver resident Adrian Bettenson first met Papi in Mexico last spring. Papi was a puppy living in an abandoned home off of scraps and water dropped off by neighbours.
Bettenson said Papi and his brothers and sisters were in "survival mode," and over the course of a month, he came to know the dogs and decided something had to be done.
"[Papi] was the sickest one there, even his brothers and sisters knew so they kind of stayed away from him. So I finally had enough," Bettenson said. "I said, we're going to rescue a pup, we're not giving up until we rescue."
He and a friend trapped Papi, took him to the vet to get cleaned up and healthy, and prepared to take him home to Canada.
"If I could have taken them all I would have," Bettenson added.
Papi arrived in the South Okanagan in June 2023, where he spent the summer learning to trust and enjoy his new family, including two dog brothers and Bettenson's son Chase, who soon became his best friend.
"We brought him out of survival mode," Bettenson said.
But in early January, Papi got spooked while out for a walk at the family's home in an Oliver RV Park, and he ran.
The family was desperate to find Papi, who had no experience with surviving in snow and who they knew would be scared of strangers.
As temperatures plummeted, so did Bettenson's spirits. A swift and punishing cold snap moved into the region just days after Papi vanished, leaving Bettenson wondering how his summer-accustomed dog would deal with -25C and below.
“It was definitely a worry,” Bettenson said. “And out on the reserve, there's coyotes, there's cougars."
Bettenson posted photos of Papi on social media, and the community immediately rallied to help, sharing posts and providing updates and offers of help.
Despite the cold, sightings of Papi kept coming in. Residents around Oliver and Osoyoos kept Bettenson up to date, blowing up his phone with notifications. Papi was running scared, and all attempts to catch him by strangers were not working.
"It was like a full time job, just trying to be the dispatcher and trying to keep myself calm. On my phone 24/7 with my son and my fiancee to try and figure out 'OK, he was spotted here, he was spotted there,'" Bettenson said.
"And I'd say the most frustrating thing was, we knew that if he had seen one of us three, he would come back to us, but everybody else in both communities kept seeing him except us."
Local rescue organizations also got involved, offering help with their expertise, advice, and physical traps. The Osoyoos Indian Band allowed searches on private trails as everyone tried to track Papi.
As the days ticked on, Bettenson and his family tried to stay strong.
"There were nights when we're all crying, like, come on, you know? You get a second chance at life and then that happens?" Bettenson said.
"We said, we got to find this guy, regardless."
Finally, after eight days missing in frigid temperatures, the family got the opportunity they had been waiting for. Bettenson's fiancee spotted Papi, and Chase was able to get to the area quickly.
"And there was Papi. He heard the truck, he recognized the sound [of my truck], my son slammed on the brakes, put it in park and went out on his hands and knees," Bettenson said, explaining they had been advised by rescue organizations to proceed cautiously, even though the instinct may be to run towards the dog with joy.
They also advised using items that smelled like family members, like blankets.
"My son slowly walked up to him and called him, said 'I'm coming to get you' kind of thing, and then boom, Papi snapped out of survival mode, my son grabbed him."
Papi is skinny, but on the road to recovery, and is settling back in to his home.
The local Dairy Queen donated some ice cream — a Papi favourite — and he got to eat his fill of pizza, before taking a long, warm, cosy nap.
Bettenson’s voice broke with emotion when describing what it means to have Papi back, and what everyone in the Oliver, Osoyoos and Osoyoos Indian Band communities and beyond who helped will always mean to him and his family.
"To have communities pull together like that for people they don't know and a dog they don't know, to help out, you couldn't ask for any better place," Bettenson said.
"It's amazing how a story like this reaches everyone."
