Dogs taken during Alberta floods return home

Tuesday, June 25, 2013, 4:22 PM -

A pair of samoyeds taken during the Alberta floods have returned home, thanks to tips received on social media.

Stella and Murphy were returned home thanks to tips received on social media

Geoff and Nancy Sawyer appealed to Twitter after their two dogs, Stella and Murphy, were taken from the Calgary area over the weekend.

Two women driving a pickup truck with B.C. plates were located by police after Sawyer posted a tweet requesting the public's help in locating his dogs.

The tweet quickly went viral and not long after, tips started trickling in.

"On Saturday morning we got the first tip from Stephanie telling us that she'd seen the dogs with two young women who were driving a late model blue truck with a grey topper and BC plates," Geoff wrote in a post that was shared on the YYC Pet Recovery Facebook page.

"On Sunday we got a phone call from Cathy, telling us that she'd seen the truck multiple times in Bowness, and that she suspected that they lived somewhere in the area. We drove to Bowness right away to start looking for the truck, but it was so dark down there with the evacuation, and no power, we decided it was best to try again when the sun came up. We started doing a street by street search again at 4:30 am. At about 5:30 am we came around a corner and our beautiful dogs were miraculously standing right in front of us, beside the truck we were looking for. Murphy and Stella had broken out of the back of truck. We believe Murphy and Stella heard the sound of our vehicle (we've observed this on many occasions) and jumped out of the back of the truck.

Due to the evacuation, there is a very heavy police presence in the area. A a patrol car was driving along Bowness Road just as all of this was happening. I flagged the car over, and explained the entire story to two great police officers who followed up by running the plates, and locating these two young women. We do not know the outcome beyond this point."

Hundreds of pets were separated from their families when flood waters ravaged southern Alberta late last week.

Thanks to social media, many have started to return home. Of the lost animals posted on the YYC Pet Recovery Facebook page, 121 have been reunited with their families.

Approximately 60 of the animals posted to the page remain in foster care.