Five years ago, Aimee Hemming’s life was headed for a lonely gap.

She was 19, living in Kamloops a long way from family, working at a pet store, and breaking up with her boyfriend.

She was driving in her first car on Highway 97A by Monte Lake, headed for Cherryville, east of Vernon, where her mother lived.

A huge logging truck and a camper were coming down the highway on the opposite side.

A disoriented German shepherd was running on the highway.

Hemming stopped her car in the middle of the road and after a few minutes of coaxing and chasing, convinced the dog to go with her.

“She didn’t look like she knew where she was or what she was doing. She didn’t look good at all. She was really dirty, she smelled like cow, she was underweight,” Hemming said Thursday.

“She was a little bit scared and didn’t understand what we were trying to do. People were honking their horns and stuff.”

Hemming tried the SPCA and advertised. The German shepherd, about seven to nine years old at the time, had no collar, no tattoo, no microchip.

She got responses to her ad from people who didn’t own the dog but wanted to take her. Instead, Hemming named the dog Lady (it was one of the few names she tested on her that she seemed to respond to) and kept her.

Hemming was living in a no-pets townhouse at the time, so she’d hoped her mother would take the dog. That didn’t work out, and after two months of sneaking the dog in and taking her to doggy day care when she was at work, a neighbour ratted Hemming out.

“So many people were going to take her home, but instead I chose to get evicted.”

Five years later, Hemming and Lady are now in Red Deer, Alta. Lady has had heart failure that’s taken a toll on her health the last couple of years.

“I don’t expect her to make it to the winter.”

Hemming wanted to find out more about the dog she has so cherished. So she posted an ad on the free online classified service, Kijiji, hoping for details about Lady’s life before she found her.

She has had responses from people who have seen the ad, but no one has supplied any information about the dog she has loved for five years.

“I’ve had 30 or 40 emails from people wishing me well, saying my ad brought tears to their eyes,” she said.

“It’s just peace of mind. I don’t really know why I’m looking. I feel I owe it to her. I’d love to see puppy pictures or something of her. No one could have possibly dumped her, she’s so smart.”

Hemming is trying to make Lady’s final days, weeks or possibly months as comfortable as possible. The dog gets vitamins and herbs for her joints and has an orthopedic bed and a rhinestone-studded collar. Hemming is a groomer, so Lady is kept looking her best.

But the dog’s mysterious past still raises questions for her owner.

“I wonder what her real name is. Whoever her owner was, she spent a long time with them.”

Hemming’s Kijiji ad is still running in the same column where dog owners are selling puppies and dog lovers are looking for their own four-legged friends. She can be contacted through the ad, viewable online at http://kamloops.kijiji.ca/f-pets-dogs-puppies-for-sale-W0QQCatIdZ126QQPageZ5.

myoung@kamloopsnews.ca