This article was previously published on GuelphToday and EloraFergusToday.
GUELPH/ERAMOSA – It’s a tragic end to a tumultuous week of searching for their lost dog.
Steve and Sharon Ross were in a collision that saw their jeep roll over last Sunday near Eden Mills when their dog Riggs went missing during the chaos.
Rather than recovering, they’ve spent the week tirelessly searching for their one-year-old Boston terrier, even offering a $5,000 reward for finding him. That search reached a devastating end Saturday morning.
A woman driving to work at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday spotted Riggs’ body in the road just outside Eden Mills on Wellington County Road 29. He had been hit by a car. She moved him to the side, wrapped him in a blanket and called Ross to let her know.
The family ran out right away to get him, and took him back to their vet in Guelph to be cremated.
“I’m sure that was awful for her to have to do,” she said. “We’re not happy how we found him, but now at least we know.
“We just feel guilty because we looked where he was found so many times. What if I would have gone out an hour before? That part’s kind of hard.”
Ross said it was 4 p.m. two Sundays ago when their Jeep was hit by a driver who she said ran a stop sign at Indian Trail and Wellington Road 29. She said OPP told her the other driver was charged with a failure to stop at a stop sign.
Their truck rolled three times onto a neighbour’s lawn, and Ross was taken to the hospital in an ambulance. One week later, she’s still pretty banged up, with a laceration on her arm.
Their other dog, a 10-month-old Boston terrier named Winnie, was found not long after the collision on Highway 7 near the train tracks.
She’s been having a hard time ever since, traumatized from the crash and upset that Riggs isn’t around.
They’re currently looking for a trainer to help her through it, and possibly another dog to make her feel more comfortable.
“We’re trying to help her through it.”
“Her and Riggs were inseparable,” she said, noting that Winnie has spent her whole life next to Riggs.
“I know some people think, oh, it’s just a dog. But my kids are grown up now, they are my babies. They sleep in my bed. They are everything.”
“Everyone’s been amazing,” she said of the community. “But it’s been a really rough time, all because one person didn’t stop at the stop sign. That changed our whole life.”
