FREDERIC SERRE
The 1019 Report

A new resident of the Town of L’Île Perrot discovered last week that old-school neighbourly kindness is alive and well after members of the community rallied to help him find his dog that had escaped from his yard and wandered for four hours, ending up along busy Highway 20 before being rescued by a young couple who was driving by and spotted the panicked dog.

“When the couple (that saved the dog) rang my doorbell, I broke down and cried in front of them,” said an emotional Eric Serre, 64, who spent the entire afternoon of April 14 on foot, searching for his six-year-old pooch, Patchouli, through a wooded area and swamp.

The drama began at about 11 a.m. when Serre was testing his new home’s smoke alarms. The noise frightened his dog, whic escaped through a hole at the base of the fence on the property. When Serre went outside to check in on his dog, he was gone, prompting the hours-long search.

Serre was worried that the dog – a miniature Australian Shepherd Japanese Spitz mix – wasn’t familiar with his surroundings because Serre and his had only moved into their rented home last month.

An hour later, Pincourt resident Pamela Lecavalier posted a message on the Pincourt Peeps Facebook community page, saying she was driving on Highway 20 and spotted a “white fluffy dog” running across Highway 20 between Boulevard de L’Île and Don Quichotte Boulevard near the train tracks.

Upon reading Lecavalier’s post, other local residents joined the search, including Donna Le Blanc and Pauline Proulx, who posted updates on the Facebook page. Neighbours who saw the post alerted Serre, saying his dog was walking along the highway and that people were looking for him.

That’s when Vicky Pegiel and her boyfriend were driving along Highway 20 and immediately stopped when they saw the dog walking along the side of the highway. They opened their passenger door and the dog immediately jumped in.

Pegiel then posted on the Facebook group page that she had the dog, prompting others to deliver the good news to Serre, who was reunited by his dog around 4 p.m., when Pegiel dropped him off.

“The neighbours here are incredible,” Serre said. “They searched through the streets and the forest between Don Quichotte and de L’Île. Even Refuge Vaudreuil – Patrouille Sécurité called me the morning after to get news of Patchouli. Class acts!”