A cat missing for ten years, a dog who disappeared during a wildfire, and more heartwarming true stories of pets who were lost—then found
TRIAL BY FIRE
BY ROBERT LIWANAG
FEW SENIOR DOGS are as energetic as 13-year-old Sedze, a white and beige Shih Tzu whose name means “my heart” in the Dogrib language, spoken by the Tlicho First Nation. Aptly so, as Sedze has been a beloved member of the Yellowknife-based Cumming family since she was eight weeks old. Despite being in her golden years, Sedze can still keep up with Axel, the family’s nine-year-old German shepherd, on long walks. “Our vet always comments on what good shape she’s in,” says her owner, Louise Cumming, a collections officer for Housing Northwest Territories. “She’s a real trooper kind of a dog.”
In August 2023, the little Shih Tzu’s resilient spirit went through a real-life trial by fire. On August 13, Louise and her husband, Shannon, were shopping for non-perishables and packing up their camping gear in anticipation of an evacuation order. A massive wildfire 22 miles west of the city was getting dangerously close and officials were monitoring its path.
Over the previous three months, Canada had been dealing with its worst wildfire season on record. In all, more than 6,600 wildfires were recorded in the country in 2023— 1,000 more than the ten-year average.
On August 16, the evacuation order came and Yellowknife’s 20,000 residents were instructed to leave the city. At 9:15pm, Louise, along with her husband, daughter-in-law and her daughter-in-law’s best friend, hopped into two cars and a truck with their pets: Sedze, Axel, a husky named Rhea, a cat named Copernicus and a chihuahua named Choco. Along with their clothes, phones and laptops, they made their way onto the Mackenzie Highway, heading south toward Alberta (Louise’s son, who worked at a diamond mine in the North Slave Region, was to rendezvous with the group later).
Their destination was an evacuation centre in High Level, a town about seven hours away in northern Alberta, but heavy traffic slowed them down and thick smoke made it hard to see. “The drive seemed to take forever...but once we finally got through the fire, the relief was amazing,” says Louise.
After driving all night, the exhausted group set up camp near the Deh Cho bridge—137 miles from the A
