A Maple Ridge dog owner is overjoyed and relieved after her prized dog was discovered and returned to her after it went missing on Monday, Jan. 24.

Shrimpy was discovered Monday night by a man who noticed the German shepherd running loose along a road by the Laity Pumpkin Patch.

He was able to gather Shrimpy up and got in touch with owner Melissa Hume to return the dog.

Hume said on Saturday they received video surveillance that showed Shrimpy was running loose on Saturday, but then they had no news for two days.

“I think that because Shrimpy was in an area with so many coyotes that people kind of mistook her for a coyote because she looks so similar,” said Hume.

Hume discovered Shrimpy was gone when she noticed both doors to her garage open on her Webster’s Corners property. She reported the incident to police and put up a reward for the dog’s safe return.

Shrimpy is a competitive sport dog in IGP, a German acronym for Internationale Gebrauchshunde Prüfungsordnung, or in English, International Working Dog Trial Regulations.

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“It’s a three phase sport in tracking, obedience, and protection training,” explained Hume, adding that in September Shrimpy won High Place IGP 2 for her skills that she has been learning since she was eight weeks old.

Hume said she tried to give the man who returned Shrimpy a reward but he wouldn’t accept it.

“Which I think is a really honest thing to do,” she said.

Now Hume wants people to learn from her situation and make sure their dogs are tagged.

“I wish that I would have had a tag on her. Had that nice man not have seen my posts, maybe it would have taken longer for me to get her back,” said Hume.

“You never think that this could happen until it happens,” added the dog owner.