Two days before Christmas, Facundo Tio-Tio found a shivering, cold dog standing on top of a pile of broken furniture at the Hinton landfill. 

The cairn terrier’s golden fur was stained brown with dirt and matted from “who knows how many days” of living in trash.

“I went out of the truck and said, ‘Come here,’ and she was wiggling her tail coming toward me,” recalls Tio-Tio, who drives Jasper’s waste to the Hinton landfill. “Then, as I cuddled her, I noticed it was cold and shivering, so we put her inside our truck because it’s warm.”

The dog had no tags, so Tio-Tio asked the people working at the landfill if they knew whom she belonged to, but they had no idea. So, rather than leave her in the cold, Tio-Tio took her home to Jasper, leaving his phone number behind in case someone came looking for her.

“Until now, nobody has called,” he said on Tuesday. 

“Everyone tells me she’s my lucky dog, so I called her Lucky,” he said. 

When he arrived home with her, he gave her a bath to wash off some of the dirt.

He said he was surprised by how calm she was during the process. She didn’t bite or try to run away, he said.

“It’s just a kind dog.”

Tio-Tio kept the dog for a short while before passing her on to Leona Amann, who fostered her for a week.

Amann took Lucky, whose name has since been changed to Loki, to see a veterinarian technician on New Year’s Day. During the visit, the technician didn’t find a tattoo or a chip.

Amann took her home, bathed her again, gave her a haircut – to get out the mats and to let her see out from under her bangs – and clipped her nails. She said, in the end, Loki looked like a completely different dog.

It wasn’t just her appearance that improved from the love and attention she received from Tio-Tio and Amann, it was also her demeanour.

“When she came, she was a little lethargic and scared, but now she’s not lethargic at all,” said Amann.

On Jan. 5, Loki found her permanent Jasper home with new owner Deb Lucki.

Lucki said she and her family had been talking about getting a dog for a couple of years and, had just committed to finding one by the spring, when they heard about the cairn terrier found at the dump.

“It was a really good fit right now,” she said. “It’s just nice to have a dog that needs a home and we’ve got one.

“She’s really a calm dog. She doesn’t bark. She’s just got a really nice disposition. She seems really happy.”

Lucki said although she’s thrilled to add a new member to her family, she’s also nervous that one day she’ll receive a phone call from Loki’s original owner.

“It’s almost a little bit of fear that somebody will come up and say, ‘Well, this is what happened.’”

But fear or no fear, Lucki is ready to share her home with Loki.

“The cat’s not so excited, but she’ll get used to it,” Lucki said with a laugh. “They always find a way to get along. I think the nice thing about it is that they keep each other company.”

Lucki said her cat, who she’s had for eight years, was also a stray.

“And that worked out great,” she said. “Hopefully this all works out good, too.”