The entire community of Pemberton has rallied together to try and find a couple’s beloved dog.
Christina Stevenson’s dog, Daisy is just over one year old and went missing on June. 22. The border collie-pitbull mix disappeared without a trace near the old festival grounds on Kwetsa Road.
Stevenson has urged locals to keep an eye out for their missing family member. Daily was wearing a purple harness with a daisy-shaped name tag. Daisy is 55 pounds and is mainly black with white markings. The young dog is also microchipped and sprayed. A $1,000 reward will be given to anyone who can help get Daisy home.
Stevenson told Pique that they need to get a photo of Daisy to escalate the search. "She has a white tip on her tail, a white belly, black and white spots on her paws and face,” said Stevenson.
Stevenson and her partner, Austin Small have been inconsolable since Daisy went missing.
“She was from the Squamish rez. We saw her and fell in love with her,” she said. “My partner and I got her when she was four months old. She is the first dog that we have owned together. She became our passion child. All of our love was funnelled into this little dog from the day that we met her. She goes into the office with my husband every day.”
The couple are from Squamish and were on a camping trip on the afternoon of June. 22 when Daisy vanished. “We lost Daisy in Pemberton. We went camping for the weekend with our friends,” said Stevenson. “They live at the old festival grounds on Highway 99. We were packing up our stuff to go camping. Our friends have two dogs. They were playing about. Daisy is well trained. She is very comfortable off leash and in new environments. We took our eyes off her for one second. She just disappeared in no time.”
The group immediately went into action mode, flying a drone over the area and searching of foot. “We did that for four days. We couldn’t find anything. A lot of the area is forest. We searched every inch of the three-kilometer radius and couldn’t find her."
Despite staying in the area for three weeks hoping Daisy would come back, she never did, and the couple had to go back to work. The tracking device on Daisy's collar was fully charged and working as normal, but went offline fifteen minutes after her disappearance—making the search that much harder. According to Stevenson, what they do know is that the collar wasn't turned off manually. "She is out there somewhere."
Daisy’s family have tried every trick in the book to try find her, including installing trail cameras in the area.
Since her disappearance, there have been occaisional unconfirmed sightings of Daisy, at Sunstone Way, at the rodeo grounds and even in Squamish, though most of these leads have been debunked.
“Our most recent sighting still stays strong,” said Stevenson. “She was spotted in town on Pemberton Farm Road East. She was also spotted on the Mackenzie Road FSR, near where the parking for the trails is.”
Every time someone contacts Stevenson, she imagines bringing Daisy home to her own bed. “It’s such an emotional rollercoaster. You think you have something, and you ride this high,” said Stevenson. “Then, it’s debunked and it’s like losing her all over again. We are just trying to channel all the energy that we have into finding her. We just want to bring her home.”
Stevenson and Small's lives have are on standstill until they can confirm what happened to Daisy. “When we get a sighting, we go to that location,” she said. “We look at game tracks where animals are walking through the bush. We piece the sightings together and try to find a loop that the dog creates. They create a territory and gradually expand it. If they go somewhere once, it’s very likely they’ll go there again. We will set up trail cameras where there have been sightings.”
A heat sensing drone didn’t find Daisy. Scent tracking dogs were also enlisted to try find their comrade. “You give them something that the dog adores, that has her scent on it,” said Stevenson. “They start where the dog went missing and follow the scent related to the item. They got a really strong scent at Sunstone Way at the back of the property where she had gone missing. She has been around. We have deduced that she wasn’t stolen.”
Stevenson is just praying that someone snaps a photo of Daisy so this whole ordeal can be over. “Once we have a 100 per cent confirmed sighting (a photo of Daisy), we have access to all these resources.” She thanked dog lovers in Pemberton and Lil’wat Nation who have looked for Daisy like she was part of their own families since day one. “Everyone knows about Daisy. The whole community wants to bring her home,” said Stevenson.
The loving owners are just praying for answers. “We are trying to keep a strong face,” said Stevenson. “At what point do you sell her toys and her food? Even if we were to find her deceased, we would have an answer. It’s so emotionally taxing.”
Anyone that sees Daisy or has information that could help can contact Stevenson on 604 213 5285.
