An Australian Shepherd lost for more than a year has made a 150-mile (241-kilometre) paw journey across the frozen ice of the Bering Sea before being returned safely to his home in Alaska.
Mandy Iworrigan, the owner of Nanuq (that’s the name of the animal), who lives in Gambell, Alaska, and her family were visiting Savoogna, another town on the island of Saint Lawrence, in the Bering Strait, when Nanuq disappeared. with the other family dog, Starlight, according to the ‘Anchorage Daily News’.
Starlight appeared a few weeks later, but she did it alone, without Nanuq. About a month after it went missing, people in Wales, 241 km northeast of Savoonga on Alaska’s west coast, began posting photos of a dog that was apparently lost online. “My father sent me a message and said: ‘There is a dog that looks like Nanuq in Wales,'” says the owner of the animal.
Iworrigan reactivated her Facebook account to see if it was her dog, and it was. How Nanuq got there and covered 241 kilometers of ice will always remain a mystery. “I have no idea why he ended up in Wales. Maybe the ice shifted while he was hunting,” Iworrigan said. “I’m pretty sure he ate seal carcasses or caught a seal, and probably birds too. He’s smart.”
Last week the animal was flown with a regional airline to return home. Iworrigan recorded her happy reunion as the plane touched down on the Savoonga runway, with her and her daughter Brooklyn squealing with joy.
Except for a swollen leg with large animal bite marks, Nanuq is in fairly good health.
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