Toronto commuter turns dog’s distress into Christmas miracle

It all started on the GO Train, just another day on the way to work. As the miles sped away getting to his office, Mac Wilson gave scant attention to his fellow commuters as he sat there planning his Christmas shopping list. The countryside flashed by the window, the trees now showing black limbs rather than golden leaves against a brooding winter sky. Then he spotted it, a dog in the Don River. He couldn’t be sure, but that’s what he thought as the train went speeding by.

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It was a one-second picture, but Wilson couldn’t make the nagging worry of a dog treading the freezing waters of the Don go away. When Wilson got off the train, he contacted Toronto Animal Services for help. Getting off the train at Union Station, he decided to go back to the part of the river where he thought he spotted the dog, with another concerned citizen. They made up their minds to try to help the dog on their own—just in case animal services couldn’t come through on time. But to his immense relief, not only did the assistance of animal services come through but so did the Toronto Police Marine Unit. Wilson’s eyes had not betrayed him, a wet and badly shivering dog was finally rescued from a tiny hole at the side of the river. It was the afternoon of December 6, and the dog had been missing from its frantic owner for three long weeks. The skinny black Labrador retriever, sight of which flashed by a commuter on a train, turned out to be the normally playful and adventurous 3-year-old “Jagger”. Jagger’s owner had called out his name everywhere, returning home brokenhearted. The story didn’t end there. Jagger’s delighted owner was traced and notified. She had her long-missing Jagger back. But initially she was disappointed to learn that no one knew the identity of the compassionate man who had flagged animal services. Finding him was important to her. It turned out to be another one of those times when the worldwide Internet came through. “Thanks to the enormous number of emails and calls that news outlets received in response to the heartwarming story, Jagger’s owner was finally given the chance to personally thank her hero.” (The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), Dec. 19, 2007). HSUS has presented Wilson with a Circle of Compassion Award, which recognizes individuals who have performed an act of significant courage or compassion to assist an animal in need. The Humane Society of the United States is the nation’s largest animal protection organization, backed by 10 million Americans, or one of every 30. For more than a half-century, the HSUS has been fighting for the protection of all animals through advocacy, education and hands-on programs. Celebrating animals and confronting cruelty, HSUS can be found on the web at www.humanesociety.org. While a wet and bedraggled Jagger fought to stay alive to hear the sound of his owner calling to him, a stranger on a train couldn’t go to work knowing he’d spotted someone’s pet in distress. To Torontonian Mac Mac Wilson and a fellow commuter, it was the right thing to do. To Jagger’s owner, it was a Christmas miracle come true. Meanwhile, on Christmas morning Jagger, like legions of dogs everywhere will sniff out the stocking left on the fireplace mantle just for him. His misadventure in the cold waters of the Don River will be fading away like the embers in the family hearth.