OVER THE RAINBOW BRIDGE - DEKE - SOOKE BC - APRIL 30, 2020

💔💔💔 APRIL 30, 2020 DEKE HAS BEEN RECOVERED FROM SOOKE RIVER TODAY. 💔💔💔

Sunday, April 26th, we were contacted by Deke’s owner, telling us Deke had been found.
CRD Parks employee, who spotted Deke in the river contacted Sooke Fire, and the on-duty officer was the neighbour of Deke’s family, and broke the news to them.
We were advised by Sooke Fire, CRD Parks and SAR, to not report this until Deke was removed.
Over the next couple of days, we communicated with John Mooney, with CRD Parks, and SAR (on site) to learn what the procedure was going to be to recover Deke.
Due to the difficulty of recovering Deke, SAR was in charge, and we were told John would contact us when SAR was in the water and approximately how long the recovery would take before we could drive into the area and retrieve Deke, so we could take him to Until We Meet Again for cremation.
FLED works very closely with Erin, at Until We Meet Again. They have always been accommodating to us when it comes to an animal making that final journey over the rainbow bridge.
Today, April 30, 2020 was the end of a nightmare for the Lau family, for FLED, and for dozens and dozens of volunteers who helped search for Deke
April 1, 2020 was an ordinary day for the family, taking a walk at the Sooke Potholes.
Deke had gone swimming in this area of the river many times with no problems.
That day, the river was swollen, and rushing as this river has done for years, and although the swimming area where Deke went in was calm to the naked eye, the water was anything but calm.
Deke got into trouble soon after going in and did not make it back out.
So many looked day after day, for this dog, for 25 days, hoping he had somehow made it to shore, and was somewhere safe.
After searching the Sooke River for 25 days, Deke was found.
These are the most heart wrenching cases for FLED.
March 2017, we helped in the search and recovery of Nixon (Black Lab) who went into the Nanaimo River and drown.
September 2017, we were called to a little White Terrier in Langford Lake
July 2018, we were called to Port Renfrew to recover Diesel (black Lab x) from the San Juan River after her owner had a car accident and Diesel ran off a 200 ft. cliff to the river.
December 2018 called to Sooke River for Toby, who had fallen in near the campgrounds and drown.
And, April 30, 2020 Deke (aka Mr. B) and it NEVER gets easier because if it did, we would be in the wrong business.
There are truly not enough thank you’ s for the outpour of support and help we got from the community of Sooke, volunteers and our own FLED volunteers.
We know we will forget someone, but we would like to express our sincere thank you to Sarah Galbraith Bonella, Chloe Beach, Mesha for his diving skills, Jean Caha, for searching the water with and without her kayak. Val Scott, for your knowledge of the Sooke Potholes, Steve #1 and Steve #2 for piloting your drones.
There are far too many to remember for the weeks of searching, including all those who came to our FLED S&R Unit to ask where they could search, and staying at a safe distance because of the coronavirus.
We cannot tell you how grateful we are to John Mooney, and the CRD Parks Dept., as it was one of their staff who, with an eagle eye, was able to spot Deke in the river.
And there are no words that can express how thankful we are to SAR for their professionalism, their compassion, and the skill of these men and women, who handled Deke.
REST IN PEACE YOU WONDERFUL BOY 🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈