Nevada dog finds its way home after a week, 77 miles

[April 19, 2008]  ELY, Nev. (AP) -- A dog that ran off during a road-trip rest stop in north-central Nevada apparently made its way nearly 80 miles across Nevada's high desert and two mountain ranges to return home to Ely a week later.

Moon, a Siberian husky, was reunited on April 14 with owner Doug Dashiell, who had last seen her April 6 near Railroad Valley, a distance he later clocked at 77 miles.

Moon, who is nearly two years old, was no worse for the wear, with the exception of stinking like a skunk that apparently sprayed her somewhere along the journey.

"I've had trouble with her running away before. She's always come home," Dashiell said. But he admitted that this time he didn't really expect her to show up after a week had passed.

"After seven days - no way," he told the Ely Times.

Dashiell said he had taken his three dogs with him on a weekend trip to Tonopah. When he let them out of his truck near Railroad Valley, Moon took off when a catch on her chain let go and she bolted into the sage brush.

Dashiell said he searched for her for several hours before giving up and heading home. The last he saw she was headed northwest toward the Duckwater Shoshone Reservation so he called the tribal police there, but they turned up no trace of Moon.

On April 14, the White Pine Veterinary Clinic telephoned Dashiell to let him know that Moon was back in town. She had wandered up to an Ely residence where Alvin Molea took her home, fed her and gave her a warm place to sleep.

Molea said he called the clinic because the dog was wearing a clinic tag.

Dashiell speculated she might have fed on rabbits during her journey, which would have taken her across the White River and Ward Mountain ranges.

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Information from: Ely Times, http://www.elynews.com

[Associated Press; By SOLVEJ SCHOU]

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