'Restores my faith in humanity': Lost dog found after 6 weeks in the bush

When 10-year-old Paws ran off near Fort Providence, N.W.T., in July, herowner Albert Bourque thought he might never see her again.

Bourque's dog had been showing signs of sickness, and he thought she might have decided to give up.

"I thought maybe she had gone off to find a place to die," he says. "Dogs will do that. They just go find a spot."

Bourque and Paws, a retired sled dog, were driving from their home in Hay River to Yellowknife when they stopped for a bathroom break, and the dog disappeared.

Bourque says hespent five or six hours searching the area before carrying on. Once in Yellowknife, he put out pleas online for help from anyone driving by.

But Paws hadn't given up.

'Fate is a funny thing'

Last week, six weeks after Paws went missing, the right person drove by at just the right time.

Wes Hinchey was on his way to Hay River when he saw a white animal running along the road.

The animal was skinny so skinny he could see its hips and vertebrae all down its back but when Hinchey noticed the collar he turned the truck around.

"I pulled out my lunch that I had with me, and used that to entice [Paws] across the road, and finally got him to my truck, and he came to Hay River with me," he recalls.

The dog was dirty, skittish and clearly starved, but she rode along in the truck in "good spirits," says Hinchey.

He fed her carefully from his lunch, not wanting to overfeed her, and got in touch with the NWT SPCA, who directed him to Heather Foubert, who was working her last day as manager of the Hay River SPCA.

"Fate is a funny thing," Foubert wrote in an email to CBC.

"If Paws hadn't appeared at the roadside just as Wes drove by, if Wes hadn't decided to go back for her Paws wouldn't have lasted much longer."

Paws was finally reunited with her family in Hay River, and is now back at home.

Bourque plans to take her to a veterinarian in Yellowknife soon, but says she's rebounding well and regainingweight.

And although he and Hinchey have not yet spoken directly, he says he's grateful Hinchey stopped.

"It restores my faith in humanity," Bourque says.