Breeze comes home

After 51 days of running free around Jasper and the surrounding area, Breeze, a collie/golden retriever cross, has been reunited with her owner Jaime Swallowell.

Breeze escaped from a house in Jasper after being rescued from the Hinton SCPA by Swallowell, where she was left after her owner died.

According to Swallowell, Breeze was probably scared of her new surroundings and was trying to run home which is why she was sighted so far from town.

Despite the odds of surviving 51 days in the wild, Breeze was caught in the Jasper lumberyard Saturday evening, May 9 by Swallowell and Leanne Standing, a concerned Jasper resident that has been assisting Swallowell during her plight.

“Saturday night was the night when we found every wrong thing about our trap and fixed it,” said Swallowel who had also set up a facebook group to track Breeze’s movements.

“Eventually she started roaming less and was kind of sticking to certain areas and there were a few sightings that came in around the Jasper lumberyard,” said Standing, adding that they thought “maybe this is a place we can keep her coming back to, so we started leaving food out nightly.”

Before the Jasperites reached this stage, they had set up a camera with motion sensor to monitor who was taking the food and soon learned that it was Breeze.

“We pretty much learned we had to put the food out after 8 p.m., so the ravens would not eat it,” said Swallowell.

“So it basically become a night time operation only which was a bit inconvenient ... but the third night we got pictures of her so we were pretty ecstatic,” added Standing.

After two visits in a row, Breeze disappeared again for three nights, which concerned the ladies, but they were happy when she returned the following day for her nightly feed – a habit which would continue throughout the next week.

While Breeze ran free and visited the lumberyard at night, Swallowell and Standing set to fixing the holes in the surrounding fence of the lumberyard. 

“That was a big job,” said Standing, adding that Breeze would escape through “the smallest, tinniest little holes that you never believe she could get through.”

Instead, the pair set up the internal fence which would eventually capture Breeze. The area was 15 ft. by 40 ft. and the trap inside had bone marrow attached to a trap door that, when pulled on, closed shut the gap in the fence.

Swallowel said it was smiles all around when Breeze returned to her. 

“She’s so happy right now, her tail will not stop wagging and she just has the biggest grin on her face.”

“She walked up to me, ate from my hand then ran away then walked up again and ate another one from my hand and lied down in front of me. I just petted her, hooked on the leash and sat there for 20 minuets, waited for her to get comfortable and then we left,” said Swallowell.