The Edmonton Elks 2022 training camp has been running at The Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium for a week and a half now, giving veterans a chance to catch up with what their teammates were up to in the offseason.
Some may have got married, some may have welcomed a child. Some were back in the classroom. But it’s likely no one has a better story to tell than wide receiver Shai Ross.
Earlier this month, Ross joined his good friend Brady Oliveira, running back with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, on a precarious mission to rescue dogs from flooded Peguis First Nation, Man.
Oliveira does rescues for K9 Advocates Manitoba and had received word that a mom and her two puppies were stranded in the first nation community, which had been evacuated because of rising floodwaters.
Normally Oliveira is accompanied on missions by his girlfriend, but she was out of town, so the Blue Bombers back called on the Elks receiver for assistance. Oliveira and Ross had been training together their hometown of Winnipeg throughout the offseason.
“I’ve always got his back in anything that he’s doing and I think he’s doing amazing things with the dog rescue, so any way I could help I was definitely up for that,” says Ross.
@brady.oliveira One of the craziest rescue missions that I’ve been on! I received an alert about a dog & her 2 pups being left on a property where the community was evacuating due to the severe flooding! Pups were locked in the bathroom for 24+ hours covered in their own urine & fecies. Mom was locked outside with nowhere to go! 💔 Walking in the ice cold flood waters & getting hypothermia was one for the books! Welcome to the goodlife 🐾 #heartwearming #abandoneddogs #dogrescuer #dogrescuestory #savedogslives ♬ original sound – Brady.oliveira
The pair traveled to Peguis First Nation, a couple hours north of Winnipeg, where the Fisher River had spilled its banks, forcing hundreds of residents from their homes.
As they arrived, snow began falling. The current was churning, and the temperature was frigid.
Paramedics on site said it would be several hours before a boat could be arranged to provide transport to the house where the animals were trapped, and the EMS workers advised Oliveira and Ross that they wait. But the CFLers knew they didn’t have a lot of time, so they decided to go on foot, wading 15 minutes through ice-cold waters before reaching the abandoned home.
“As we were walking up to the house we could just hear the mom crying,” Ross says. “She had been left on the porch for 24-plus hours in the cold, the water had been rising, so there was only really 10 feet of empty space on that porch that she could move around.
“As we walked up to her, she kept coming up to us but then she would run back towards the door. It was almost like she was trying to tell us that her babies were inside.”
Oliveira and Ross gathered the dogs, cleaned them off and got them warm. The five of them – two humans and three canines – then embarked on the trek back, Oliveira with the mom wrapped over his shoulder, Ross carrying the puppies in a clothes basket.
“It was a pretty special moment, honestly,” Ross says. “To walk up and hear a dog crying like that and just being so excited to see humans and that we could get her to land, to safety, it was very heartwarming.”
The dogs were taken in by K9 Advocates Manitoba and have since been adopted.
‘They’re healthy, they’re doing well,” Ross says. “The mom is on her own with a good family and the two pups are together as well.”
Meanwhile, Ross and Oliveira will renew acquaintances when the Elks visit Winnipeg for their first pre-season game against the Blue Bombers at IG Field on Friday. Kickoff is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. MDT. Catch all the action live on 630 CHED radio, the official broadcast partner of the Elks.
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