A family in the North Pole had a Christmas miracle when their husky was rescued by a man who calls himself ‘St. Nick’.
Jeff Hayes and his brother-in-law were heading home to the North Pole, Alaska when they stopped in northern BC. Their family dog, Yukon, slipped his collar and made a break for it. The pup took off into the woods in a full sprint.
“We looked for a couple of hours and followed his tracks but never saw him again,” Jeff Hayes stated. “He wasn’t coming when he was called. And we thought, ‘Oh my gosh, he’s just gone. There’s nothing we can do about it.’
“I left a note there at the Mile 80 rest stop (near Fort St. John). I didn’t have cell service at the time, but people started calling my wife that evening to say they saw the dog and he looks healthy but he won’t come to anybody. He’s a rescue dog that we adopted and he’s always been very shy about trusting people.”
The pooch belongs to a family with four kids between the ages of one and ten. Perhaps he took off because he just needed a break? One of the kids wrote this letter to Santa, which went viral around Fort St John.
Yukon belongs to a family with four young kids. One of the boys wrote this letter asking for his dog back for Christmas. pic.twitter.com/kNXxlGoHK9
— Kim Smith (@Kim_SmithTV) December 5, 2017
“That tugged on my heartstrings. I said, ‘I need to go out and do what I can to help’” Latoya Jones, a Fort St John resident.
The city of Fort St John took it upon themselves to reunite Yukon with his four human kids. Social media was used to post sightings of the elusive runaway.
After Yukon was caught, the family had to figure out a way to transport him from Fort St John to the North Pole. People started phoning trucking companies to see if anyone was willing to take the live cargo.
Enter Nick Stoneburgh, an Edmonton truck driver who goes by the moniker St. Nick.
“It was kind of funny. Here’s St. Nick picking up a Christmas present for the kids,” Stoneburgh said. “How can you turn down kids at Christmas?”
“I can’t even believe he’s back in our house right now,” Hayes said. “But the kids are so ecstatic and we were saying our prayers every night.”
If that doesn’t restore your faith in humanity and the holiday spirit, we don’t know what will. Happy Holidays!
For more happy doggo tales check out Patrick Stewart and Ginger’s heartwarming rescue story.