There is indeed still such a thing as a Good Samaritan. You can find them on Facebook.
In Crofton, a little girl’s best friend was found and returned, and in Maple Bay a man’s prescription glasses were located and returned thanks to the power of the social media site.
On July 13, Jean Ballard was out for a walk with her dog and came upon another lost dog — this one stuffed, pink, with polka-dotted feet and ears. The play pooch was most certainly out of place all alone at the beach.
”It was just sitting on the bench, gazing out at the bay. There was no one else around, so I figured it had been forgotten,” Ballard explained. “The dog looked well-loved, so I wanted to help get it back to the child.”
The lonely lovie brought back memories of old for Ballard.
“When my daughter was very little, we found a well-loved baby doll in a park — dressed in a hand knitted outfit, hair trimmed by a child with scissors, marks of love on its rubbery face and hands.”
That was 40 years ago, before social media, she recalled.
“We took it home as it was starting to rain, and then posted signs all around the park and put ads in the paper. No one ever contacted us. I always felt sorry for the child that lost her precious doll and never got it back.”
It was memories of that experience that motivated Ballard to post the missing dog on Facebook’s Crofton, BC-Around Town page.
Less than an hour later, came this reply:
“Ahh that’s my daughter’s favourite! Thank you so much for posting this…” wrote mom Mari Patient.
And just like that the connection was made, the mystery solved. Harvey was headed home.
“I’m so pleased the mom saw it and the story got its happy ending,” Ballard said.
Patient and her family had only moved to the area last month. They didn’t realize the prized pup was even that far from home.
“We had thought he was lost in the house somewhere,” she said.
It turns out that “Harvey” had fallen out of her 22-month-old daughter Clare’s stroller while they were enjoying the waterfront.
“He’s her favourite stuffy and would have been devastated if she’d lost him for good. We are so thankful to have him back,” Patient said. “Clare hasn’t let him out of her sight since!”
The experience has left a great impression on Patient’s family.
“It’s so nice to be a part of this great community,” she said.
Meanwhile, over in Maple Bay, Michael Stone had lost his reading glasses while out volunteering in advance of that community’s famous Canada Day parade on the morning of July 1.
His wife Barbara had their daughter post to the Maple Bay Neighbour to Neighbour page on July 2 to see if anybody had seen them.
“We had been out there to have a look,” to no avail, Barbara noted.
It took a while, 10 days from the time he lost them and nine days from his daughter’s post, but it appears Mr. Stone has been reunited with his slippery spectacles.
On July 11 Nicole Drysdale posted a photo of the glasses.
It turns out they were in the same area that the Stones had looked but were just about to fall into a storm drain when Drysdale saved them.
“It’s just incredible,” said a grateful Mrs. Stone. “They were a pair of $900 prescription glasses!”