Keno the four - year - old gruff - shepherd mix went missing in later January .

Keno , a four - year - honest-to-god strapping - shepherd mix who went missing on Vancouver Island in later January is now finally back home with his owner , Jesse McMaster , of Duncan , British Columbia . The missing pooch was discover after being lost for intimately two calendar week near Mount Prevost , a mass in British Columbia ’s Cowichan Valley .

Local reportssay the frump became excited after seeing an elk , and quickly ran off . " Me and Keno were out for a tramp on the 26th of January and I did n’t see the elk before he did , and he take off , " McMaster say Daily Paws . " I did n’t have unspoilt enough handgrip on the tierce and he get out of my hands , and ran after him as fast as he could up the pitcher’s mound . I ran up the versant , trying to catch him , but I definitely was not able-bodied to . "

dog found after missing at Vancouver Island

Photo: Courtesy of Jesse Mcmaster

McMaster ’s devotion to his dog led him to take fourth dimension off study and sleep in his car so he could stay in the location and continue searching . " I expend four or five days up on Mount Provost , camping in my Jeep , just look and waiting . Cooking Sir Francis Bacon , hop he would come out , " he said .

With no lot on his own , a search was set up , a pecuniary reward was offered , and a local voluntary groupReuniting Owners with Animals Missing ( ROAM)joined in the effort to chance Keno . composition of a dog match Keno ’s description100 kilometer away from the blot he ’d tend off from led McMaster to log Z’s in a donated motor home nearby in hopes of spotting the whelp . A helicopter flyover was even project , though it was ultimately scrub due to heavy snowfall .

Multiple report sighting a missing dog puff a leash came in , but each prison term the track seemed to run cold . It was a tough few weeks for McMaster , who look for tirelessly for his dog , and pleaded with locals to keep watch for signs of his beloved pooch . Finally , a break add up in the search for the lose wiener last workweek : somebody forge on a nearby farm spotted and snap Keno , and McMaster headed to the localization to spend the Nox searching again . “I jumped out of my house , grabbed all of the stuff and nonsense I needed to coterie on Mount Provost again and went up there and ready bacon all night by myself , " he said in his Daily Paws interview .

After travel back down the mountain to get cell service , McMaster have the call he had been waiting for around 7 a.m. Thursday , Feb. 11 — somebody had find and caught his beloved Keno . The hero was a man named Justin McKinlay , who had hear about the missing dog and took a crusade through the area before work .

On his early break of day thrust , McKinlay spotted Keno and stopped to open up his door — and the miss dog thirstily leap out in . The good samaritan dedicate a call to the ROAM volunteers who helped search for leave out dogs locally , and word in the end made it back to Keno ’s possessor , McMaster . Judy Bobke , one of the miss animal search volunteers from ROAM , uploaded a heartwarming video of the domestic dog and proprietor reunification to Facebook .

" OK , now we ’re all ugly crying , " Bobke can be heard saying on the video .

The aroused video was accompany by a heartfelt caption give thanks McKinlay for his workplace finding Keno . The post also order that McKinlay had rejected the $ 1,000 reward , or else offering to pay it forward to McMaster , who had been push to omit employment during his search exertion .

We are so felicitous Jesse and Keno were finally reunited after drop a heartbreaking 15 days aside . For more info on how to help safely capture a lost or missing pet , check out ourdo ’s and don’ts of catching a frightened wienerwurst .