The Story Behind a Great Adventure

Chiots Nordiques was born in 2009 when André Roy and Cathy Samson joined forces to meet the previously unmet needs of stray dogs in remote Quebec communities. At the time, Cathy was working as a contract occupational therapist in Kawawachikamach, a Naskapi community near Schefferville. On each of her visits, she came across many collarless dogs, most living on the streets, in harsh conditions of cold and hunger, with no access to veterinary care. She would return from the North with a puppy or two each time, hoping to offer them a better future by finding adoptive families in the South. These isolated gestures gradually became organized when André set up first a blog and then a website, Chiots Nordiques, regularly offering collarless puppies for adoption.

The puppies came from several communities in northern Quebec, often spotted by nurses and social workers who witnessed their difficult daily lives and regularly informed the Roy-Samson couple of the puppies in need of rescuing. Photos and descriptions of the puppies were posted online, and families wishing to adopt them had to complete a form describing the environment they had to offer and their motivation for doing so.

The initiative gradually gained momentum, and in 2011, Eric Coïa and Chantal Ducharme, two police officers nearing retirement, offered their puppies for adoption.