A dog that went missing in Alaska last month has returned home safely after walking 150 miles on the frozen Bering Sea.
Nanuq, a one-year-old Australian Shepherd, showed up in Wales, Alaska, wearing a collar and tag at the beginning of April. But no one was there to claim it.
The people in the small Welsh town were confused. “Lol, we don’t know whose dog this is, we’ve never seen it here in Wales before,” a local wrote on a Facebook group for locals that Insider saw.
They put up pictures of Nanuq, who looked happy and healthy.
On St. Lawrence Island, about 166 miles away, Mandy Iworrigan heard that her daughter’s lost dog had been found at the end of the Bering Strait.
Iworrigan told Anchorage Daily News that her dad sent her a text message saying, “There’s a dog in Wales that looks like Nanuq.”
“I said, ‘No freakin’ way! Isn’t that our dog? “‘What’s he doing in Wales?'” she asked.
The Dog Went Missing with Another Dog
Iworrigan said that it turned out that Nanuq, whose name means “polar bear” in Siberian Yupik, had gone missing with another family dog named Starlight.
Iworrigan said that their dogs often go out on their own into the ice, but that they usually come back after a week or two.
But when Nanuq and Starlight were gone for longer than normal, Iworrigan’s family started to worry and looked all over town for their pets, but they couldn’t find them.
Iworrigan said that about two and a half weeks after Starlight disappeared, she turned up in Savoonga, which is 37 miles from Gambell but still on St. Lawrence Island.
Nanuq, on the other hand, took an extra week to walk across the ice of the Bering Sea and get to Wales.
Iworrigan doesn’t know how Nanuq made it through the long winter trip to Wales, but according to the Anchorage Daily News, he thinks Nanuq might have caught a seal or some birds.
“He eats things from our country. She told the news source, “He’s smart.”
She called a man and his sister in Wales, who took care of Nanuq until the dog could find a way home. She then borrowed a dog crate and paid for the room on a charter plane to bring the puppy back to Gambell.
Iworrigan shared a video of her daughter meeting up with Nanuq after the plane arrived on Friday.
Later, Nanuq’s family put up pictures of him in their house and said he was healthy. Iworrigan saw several bite marks on Nanuq’s leg, but she told Anchorage Daily News that she wasn’t sure if they were made by a wolverine, seal, or small polar bear.
“We don’t know, because it’s like a really big bite,” she told the news source.
Nanuq and Starlight’s travels have made them sort of famous in Alaska. People on social media made jokes about how tough Alaskan-raised dogs are.
Iworrigan wrote on Facebook on Wednesday that Nanuq was getting the medicine he needs.
Insider tried to talk to Iworrigan for an interview, but she wasn’t available right away. Instead, she sent pictures of Nanuq at home.
Get ahead of the curve by accessing breaking news and insightful articles on californiaexaminer.net – start exploring today
Click on the following links for more news from the California Examiner:
- Milder Weather Expected to Lower US Power Usage by 1% in 2023
- Juárez Police Find 118 Dead Dogs in Truck