How a 3-legged dog found his way home after 18 days in rural Ontario

Andre the dog went on the adventure of a lifetime that spanned 18 days and 35 kilometres, and he did it all on three legs.

His foster mom dropped him off for one night at a kennel in Breslau, but Andre had other plans. He found his way out and hit the road.

“We got the phone call and it was probably the worst news ever and I was so scared,” his foster mom Hannah Spencer said. “The first thing I said was ‘he’s a baby, he’s not going to make it out there.”

To try to bring him home, Spencer worked closely with Ground Search and Rescue KW, a volunteer organization that helps people find their lost dogs.

His story spread quickly through social media, word of mouth and posters plastered around the area where he went missing.

A few people reported seeing him, but no one was able to catch him.

“It was all in country lands, so country is really hard to get sightings because he’s got so much territory to run,” Katt Burtenshaw, the co-founder of Ground Search and Rescue KW, said.

Despite being down one leg, Andre is still able to run and move like most other dogs. Still, searchers were concerned for his safety while he was gone.

“You are always worried about the elements out there. Is he going to go grab a drink in a river that’s moving too quickly and not be able to get his bearings? Is he just going to keep going into the woods where nobody is ever going to see him? Those are always the concerns which is why we always go so hard with feeding stations, cameras and traps,” Burtenshaw said.

“I was definitely reminding everybody to keep the hope up and to not quit.”

Andre the dog seen in this photo taken on May 12, 2023. (CTV News/Stefanie Davis)

Finally, on Tuesday, that hope paid off. They got the call they had been waiting for.

“I got the message right as I was getting into my bed that they had got him at the Guelph Humane Society. It was the best phone call I’ve ever gotten in my whole life,” Spencer said.

The Humane Society received a call from someone in Fergus who had fenced Andre into their yard. He had travelled over 35 kilometres from his starting spot.

“When we got there we [recognized] him right away. Definitely the three legs was very distinctive,” Brooke-Lynn Riley, an animal services officer with the Guelph Humane Society, explained.

Andre had backed into a corner behind the shed, showing signs of fear.

“But as soon as he was on that leash he was a totally different dog. He totally turned about and started wagging his tail and showing us that he was happy to be secure and going to a safe place,” she said.

They brought him back to the Guelph Humane Society and through his microchip, confirmed that it was in fact Andre.

He reunited with Spencer a few hours later.

“He was in the car and he just looked so scared and so tired. Then as soon as I sat in the car with him, he let out a huge sigh and put his head in my lap,” she said.

“He was so happy to see me and I was so happy to see him.”

Before Andre’s adventure, Spencer fostered him for about two months.

Once they reunited, she decided she never wanted to be without him again. She’s in the process of officially adopting him now.

“I wanted to adopt him from the moment I met him - I immediately said that to my roommates. He instantly curled up in my lap on the first day and he was just so adorable and I wanted him so bad. But I remembered that I only foster, and I try to get these dogs homes and everything. I kind of talked myself out of it,” she said.”

“As soon as he came back I just thought ‘that’s the universe telling me that I should have made the decision that my heart wanted to make at the beginning, and I think that I have to make that now.”

Spencer and Ground Search and Rescue KW credit the public for Andre’s safe return home.

“Sometimes we forget how kind people are, and this really taught me that,” Spencer said.