My Life with Dogs

“Dog praised as little lost girl’s saviour”

by David Gonczol, The Ottawa Citizen

Published: Wednesday, May 07, 2008

When two-and-a-half-year-old Destiny King visits her aunt’s farm in Coe Hill, Ont., near Bancroft, the farm’s collie, Shilo, follows her everywhere.

So when Destiny wandered into the bush that surrounds the farm Monday evening, looking for her father, who was fixing fences, Shilo was right behind her.

And all through the night, as searchers in planes and on the ground combed the treacherous, rocky area for the missing child, Shilo stayed close, keeping Destiny warm and safe.

So close, the collie’s fur was still stuck to the child’s midsection when rescuers found her at 5:20 a.m. yesterday, a full three kilometres west of the farm.

“That dog was her saviour and her friend who stayed with her all the time that she was out in the bush,” said Destiny’s mother, Debbie King.

The Kings, who also live in Coe Hill, called police after spending a frantic hour searching for Destiny after realizing she was missing.

A massive search was quickly set in motion. Military aircraft dispatched by the Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Trenton dropped flares through the night to help Ontario Provincial Police with search dogs on the ground.

“It was very scary,” said Ms. King.

“All I could do was pray that the good Lord above would bring her back home.”

The terrain in the area south of Algonquin Park is so difficult that family and friends were not allowed to join in the search in darkness. A helicopter with heat-sensing equipment was grounded because of technical problems and could not be used in the search.

Two OPP dog teams finally reached the girl. Paramedics rushed to check her, but apart from feeling cold, she appeared to be fine. A subsequent trip to hospital confirmed that she survived her ordeal with only a few scratches on her legs.

Destiny told her parents yesterday morning that she “went walking to find daddy.” She told her parents she eventually became tired and sat down to rest, and that is where rescuers found the toddler with Shilo, who ran away when confronted by the search dogs.

By the time the family returned from the hospital late yesterday morning, five-year-old Shilo had found his way back to the family farm.

OPP Const. Suzanne Cox said everyone was relieved to find the girl because she could have easily walked over a ledge and taken a fall onto rocks or fallen into some water, not to mention contact with dangerous wildlife.

“It could have turned out quite differently. She is very lucky,” said Const. Cox.

Family, friends and rescuers, as well as Destiny, spent much of yesterday catching up on their sleep.

Shilo, meantime, will be sticking even closer to Destiny.

“My sister-in-law gave her the dog,” said Ms. King. “She said after this, that dog belongs to her.”

© The Ottawa Citizen 2008