A border services officer who was posted in North Portal is gaining attention for his efforts to help a dog.
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) Prairie Region has been profiling heartwarming stories on its Twitter feed involving officers in honour of the CBSA’s 15th anniversary.
The first story they shared last week was that of Perry Dyke and a dog named Roxy that Dyke met and eventually adopted.
Dyke is a former Estevan resident who was an officer at the North Portal border crossing. He was transferred to Atlantic Canada earlier this year.
After he was posted to the Prairie region a few years ago, he was looking for a way to volunteer his time in the community.
He offered to walk dogs for the Estevan Humane Society in 2015.
“I started pretty regularly, probably two or three times a week, I would go down and walk a dog, and usually it was the same one,” said Dyke. “They would eventually get adopted out.”
One day a staff member asked Dyke if he would walk Roxy, a pit bull cross who had been in their care for some time.
“They were hoping that I could consistently walk her, because … people were passing her up,” said Dyke.
At first sight, Roxy can be a little intimidating, but he started walking her, and they built a bond.
Roxy wound up at the humane society’s shelter after a man was arrested for smuggling in North Portal in 2013.
The suspect was travelling with two dogs, both of which were taken to the humane society. When the traveller was released, he went to the humane society to retrieve one of the two dogs, but left Roxy behind.
The CBSA stressed that Dyke acquired the dog through his work with the humane society, not through the arrest at the border.
Dyke said he decided to adopt her because she kept coming back into his life. She went to the Regina Humane Society for a short period of time, but was eventually returned to Estevan. She was adopted out and brought back to the shelter.
Whenever she was in Estevan, Dyke was walking her, and Dyke and his wife viewed it as a sign they should adopt her.
“My wife and I decided initially just to foster her so she could get some consistency,” said Dyke.
After that trial run, they adopted her in September 2017.
Roxy is doing well. She was “rough around the edges” when Dyke started walking her, in part because she wasn’t well-socialized from her time at the shelter.
“She’s a dog who can communicate really well for some reason. We know exactly what she’s looking for, and she loves to spend time with us. Her behaviour has changed quite a bit. She’s a lot more trusting, she’s a lot more comfortable and she can relax when she’s with us.”
Roxy even wound up being on the front cover of a fundraising calendar that the humane society did last year.
She has also adapted well to her new surroundings. Dyke said she loved the drive from the Prairies to Atlantic Canada.
“There’s the ocean, and there’s a lot more trees here than what she was used to in Estevan. But she loves it. I don’t know if she really notices the difference, but she’s enjoying it.”
Dyke said he loves animals, but he had never owned a dog or any pet until Roxy entered his life. He wanted to help out the humane society because of the proximity to his home, his willingness to help animals and his desire to get some exercise.
“Because of the nature of the work that we do, it’s quite physically demanding at times, and I found that on my days off, going for a walk was actually quite helpful. So I thought ‘if I’m going to go for a walk, why not take a dog with me?’”
He said he’s happy to be in Atlantic Canada, but he misses the people he met in Estevan and North Portal.
“I grew attached to the town and the friends that I made there. I always enjoyed working in North Portal and the colleagues that I had the opportunity to work with there.”
