Saanich police are looking for the driver of a vehicle that struck and killed two dogs in a crosswalk Friday morning.

Mark Miller was delivering newspapers while walking his dogs, Clementine and Moses, at the intersection of Interurban Road and Grange Road around 7 a.m.

He stopped at the marked crosswalk and when he stepped out on the road a vehicle drove through, hitting both pets, according to police.

“He was just about across and a car was speeding, kind of came out of nowhere, he hadn’t seen it coming, and it was kind of swerving,” said Mark’s wife, Anne Miller. “It just missed Mark and hit the two dogs.”

According to officials, the driver briefly stopped to ask if the dog owner was ok and then fled the scene.

“The driver got back into his vehicle and took off,” said Saanich Police Acting Sgt. Jereme Leslie.

The man took his injured dogs home, where Clementine, a 13-year-old border collie, died shortly after.

Moses, a six-year-old Belgian shepherd, was taken to a veterinarian where she later died of her injuries as well.

“I heard Clementine was gone, and I was pretty hysterical and crying, and then talking to the vet to find Moses is gone as well…sometimes you lose one dog and it’s really sad, but the other dog kind of keeps you going,” said Miller. “But they’re just gone, both of them, like that – so quick.”

She said her husband is too distraught to talk about the dogs’ deaths.

The pair is trying to accept Moses and Clementine won’t be coming home to their empty bowls or abandoned toys, but what they can’t accept are the actions of the driver.

“How could you do that?” Miller said.

The driver is described as a white man, 20 to 25 years old with blond hair. He was driving a newer, blue, two-door sedan.

“In this particular case the owner was crossing the street at a marked crosswalk, had his dogs leashed, had a light on himself and had even put lights on his dogs,” Leslie said.

Police say there might be front-end damage to the vehicle.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Saanich police at 250-475-4321 or Crimestoppers at 1-800-222-8477.