This courageous dog raised the bar for trekking when it managed to cross the ice sea more than 160 miles away and make it back home after at least one confrontation with an Arctic predator.
Australian shepherd Nanuq vanished in March while his family was traveling, according to Anchorage Daily. Starlight and Ghost, the family’s other two canines, vanished as well. The puppies reside in the small Alaskan hamlet of Gambell with their family on St. Lawrence Island. When the people were at Savoonga, another village on the island about 37 miles distant, they vanished.
The owner of the dogs, Mandy Iworrigan, told the newspaper that she and her companion looked all over the region for Nanuq and Starlight but were unable to locate them. Iworrigan’s uncle’s dog, Ghost, is quite adept at making his way out of situations, but according to the uncle, he “always finds his way back.”
Iworrigan’s kids were playing outdoors in Savoonga when they saw a puppy that looked suspiciously like Starlight. When the girls initially informed Iworrigan, she wasn’t persuaded until she saw the dog persistently trailing her youngest daughter. The dog turned out to be Starlight, but Nanuq was still missing.
Iworrigan’s father discovered a potential Nanuq sighting around a month after he vanished, but it wasn’t what she had anticipated. He texted her that a dog that resembled Nanuq lived in Wales, Alaska. Wales lies across the Bering Sea at a distance of 166 miles.
Pictures of the spoof first surfaced on a local Facebook group. Iworrigan checked to see whether Nanuq may be the dog after all. She knew it had to be him as soon as she viewed the photos.
“My reaction was, ‘No frickin’ way! That puppy is ours! How come he’s in Wales?” Iworrigan asked the publication.
It is still unknown how Nanuq made her amazing trek across a frozen sea, but Iworrigan believes her clever youngster most likely survived by hunting or by eating the leftovers of other animals’ hunts.
It was an expedition in and of itself to get Nanuq home because there are no direct flights from Wales to St. Lawrence Island. Nanuq was fortunate to catch a ride on a charter airplane that was transporting youngsters from Wales to Gambell for a youth Olympic competition.
When the jet touched down and Nanuq returned from his crazy experience last week, the family was ecstatic. In a video that Iworrigan shared on Facebook, the family can be seen cheering and jubilantly applauding as Nanuq is taken off of the plane. And there, front and center, is Starlight, ready to welcome her brother home.
The puppy was rather healthy when he came, although he did have a swollen leg and a few noticeable bite wounds. Although the nature of the animal that left them is unknown, Iworrigan believes Nanuq may have been bitten by a seal, wolverine, or perhaps a tiny polar bear.
After a long voyage, Nanuq is now safely back home recovering with his canine and human family.
Iworrigan told the newspaper that if dogs could talk, both Nanuq and Starlight would have amazing stories to tell.