Two animal companions are safe and sound after an extended period in the bush, but where they came from and who they belong to is still a mystery.
A dog and a cat — unlikely companions in the wild — were found and rescued by a pair of hunters recently. They are currently convalescing at the home of one of the hunters in the Cranbrook area.
"They may not have been starving but they were pretty hungry," said Diana Magdalin, whose husband Dean was one of the hunters who came across the dog and cat.
"Their ribs weren't sticking when we got them, but they were very hungry. Very stressed and very tired. They had been in their own for a few days, at least."
Diana said that on Sept. 2, Dean and an old friend were out hunting. They were driving down a dirt road in the Ha Ha Creek area when they thought they saw a bear.
"Then they thought it might be a wolf," Diana said. She said her friend said that if the animal was a wolf, then why wasn't it eating that cat that was running with it.
It was in fact a dog and a cat, loping down the road together.
The two hunters pulled up. Diana said the cat came right over and got in the truck, but the dog took some persuading.
“They drove around to all the nearby camps,” Diana said, but nobody knew anything about the animals.
Dean brought the dog and cat home, and the SPCA was called. But no one had reported any missing pets.
At the moment, Diana and Dean Magdalin are trying to locate the owners of the dog and the cat, but Diana says she and Dean are willing to adopt them if the owners aren’t located. “If something happened to separate them from their owner, we’d love to get them back together. If not, we’d like to keep them.”
They have given the dog — a female Bernese Mountain Dog — the name Brandi, and the cat is called Luna. They were fairly lethargic at first, but each day they have a little more energy.
The two animals also get along with the dogs and cats the Magdalins already have, and are very well behaved.
“They are very well trained,” Diana said. “Whoever owned them took very good care of them. You can tell both the cat and the dog were very well loved.”
Brandi and Luna are also very good friends, it seems. “They really know each other, and get along very well,” Diana said.
If you have any information about Brandi and Luna’s owners, please contact the SPCA.
With files from Mike Turner/Global News