I seem to recall a story about a family that picks up sticks and moves across the country, but having to leave their beloved pet behind. Miraculously, several months later Fido shows up at their new home, only slightly worse for wear, having traveled across numerous highways, rivers, mountain ranges, etc.
I’d like to believe that a dog could do this (Even, grudgingly, a cat, but a search on Google hasn’t brought up anything concrete. Urban Legend?
You’re right, these are hard to find on the internet. I can’t find any links but I know of one such stories.
One involved an Australian man who was traveling through the outback and his dog jumped off the truck after something he stopped and tried to find his dog but he couldn’t. He traveled back to his home in something like 10 days. It was a program on Animal Planet.
Although I think the story you mention is more of a movie story. The dog would be hard pressed to figure out which state, county, town, house they moved too.
Well I do not have a cite for this one, because it is a personal experience.
When I was around the age of ten. I lived in a little community in Connecticut. I lived in a neighborhood where everyone knew each other. I used to mow a neighbors grass every summer because they went to Maine from June till September every year. He would give me 200 dollars evry sumemr form when I was ten until I was fourteen.
Anyway, one year the family came home just after labor day, and they were minus their dog (which was a beagle)… Well they told me that they made it all the way to Providence Rhode Island before they realized the dog was missing. This was on a Saturday. They ended up going back to Wells Maine to see if the dog was lurking around their house they had just left. To their dismay the pooch was no where to be found. So they gave up search and came home to Connecticut. They had had the dog for close to ten years at this time, so the dog was getting on in years.
Anyway, right around Christmas time, about the middle of December, the Dog shows up on their front door step barking and yelping as usual…Well this was a miracle…And it made the local news paper and was quite unbeleivable…But it happened, and that was back in 1983…I hope this sheds some light on the post.
I have no notion why or how the dog made it home, but it did. Had I not seen it with my own eyes I would never have beleived it either…
I don’t know about following, but I once had a dog who disappeared for almost two years. One day I opened the back door (my backyard was fenced) and there he sat, looking as though he had never left. He didn’t even seem overly excited to see me. Just the normal doggy welcome.
I have no idea where he got off to. All my neighbors denied any involvement. He was a doofus pooch, and popular with the kids.
Peace,
mangeorge
I live in a large, urban, sprawling city. My cousin, who lives about 2 miles away from me, used to have a dog (sadly now deceased).
Some years ago, my cousin went on vacation for a week so I went round her house to feed the dog every day. One day, at about 12 midnight, I was sitting at home when there was an almighty crash against the front door. I jumped out of my skin. Then it happened again and again. I went to open the door and there was the dog!
It had managed to get out of my cousins house through an open window.
The dog had only ever been to my house once before but that was about 10 years previously and, in any case, it came by car on that occasion.
I have absolutely no idea how it managed to locate my house through the 2 mile maze of city streets.
I should mention, Im in the UK - our cities really are unplanned mazes. we’re not talking about a grid-system US city here. So 2 miles is a really long way in one of our cities.
Every so often you read in newspapers about these kind of “dog crosses the US” stories. There’s no doubt that they do happen. Id love to hear some rational explanation of how dogs and cats manage to do these things.
He probably knew in general how to get there. And then once he was close enough his sense of smell brought to you. The dog probably knew your smell and the smell of your cousin was also probably at your house. That’s how the Aussie doggie was able to find his master. Still quiet an amazing feat.
Probably not. Birds manage to travel thousands of miles between grounds during spring and fall, and almost always arrive on schedule to their exact spots. It turns out that some of them have lodestone lodged in their brain. The were effectively their own compasses.
Dogs do tend to know a thing or two about landmarks, and, ahem, “marking” them. Now the dogs mentioned probably wandered until it found his own scent, or the scent of his owner. Note in these stories it took several months for the dog to find his owner, indicating a doggedly persistent, if wandering, approach whereas if the dog had some GPS-like homing system, it would have taken a few weeks, less if he stwsaway.
That should be stowaway.
That alright, capacitor.
Peace,
mangeorge
I have a Ripley’s Believe It Or Not book somewhere which tells the story of an aging woman with Downe Syndrome. Her husband had died and her children dishoned her because she lacked inheritance or life insurance. She has a blue and white parakeet whom she befriended and named “Tom”, after her husband. She wasn’t the best pet keeper and Tom eventually flew out of his cage and in to the world. Several years later, she was on her death bed with only a doctor and some nurses around her. She kept screaming she wanted to see Tom and kept asking the doctors where he is. Then (as you’ve probably guessed), “Tom” the parakeet flies in and lands next to her cheek before she dies.
Take it for what it’s worth. However, most of the informal research I’ve done on Ripley’s Stories have at least some basis in fact.
I had a cat named TC, which stood for “That Cat” - very inventive.
Anyway, the whole time I’d had him I had lived high up in the Silverlake hills above LA. ( For those familiar with the neighborhood, I lived at the top of one of the peaks off Micheltorena, in a really great house I wish my mother hadn’t sold). I moved out and went to go live with a boyfriend in a crappy little apartment neart the intersection of Western and Hollywood Blvd. This is not an enormous distance, maybe3+ miles, but it’s all heavy, heavy traffic in the middle of a very noisy city that TC had zero familiarity with. We moved TC in a cat carrier.
Well, TC disappeared a couple days after we moved (no doubt in part because my boyfriend was an abusive asshole to him).
Two weeks later I got a call from my mother telling me that TC had shown up that morning.
Blew my mind.
Animals are amazing…looks like it’s time for me to trot out my favorite quote:
I heard a story (slightly relevent) about a cat.
I beleive it was in Wisconsin, but I could be wrong. There was a family that had a cat, and one winter it dissapeared. Everyone thought it died, but at the end of winter it came back. It did the same thing the next year, at the exact same time, and the year after that. It turned out that the cat was living in two different houses, during the winter the other people went to florida, and took the cat with them.
That reminds me of folks who kidnap peoples lawn ornaments (Pink Flamingos, say) and then take pictures of their lawn ornaments in various locations, famous landmarks, etc, and mailing them to the original owners. “Having a wonderful time.”
That might be fun to do with rover or fluffy…
Wait a minute, Tedster.
Can a hijack of a hijack be honestly be called ‘slight’?
Peace,
mangeorge
Gosh, I’m going to try this very experiment with a neighbor’s cat later today! Now before you come of thinking I’m a bastard, these damn, irresponsible neighbors leave their cats roaming all night. They dig up our flowerbeds and leave little kitty-bombs there.
I caught one of the little satan’s pets last night in a trap (a humane trap). Unfortunately, today being a holiday, animal control isn’t open. I’m NOT going to let the sucker starve to death in the cage, so I’m going to let it go out in the country (where we happen to be going anyway).
I’m hoping it gets killed by a car or a wild animal. My wife hopes it has a “fighting chance.” I really wish animal control were open; they’d destroy the animal humanely.
On the other hand, if it makes it back to the neighborhood, I’ll let you all know!
I wonder, Balthisar, if you get arrested, will that post be legal evidence at your trial? What you’re suggesting, of course, is completely illegal.
Which part?
I usually visit my parents once a year, in the summer. I would bring my ex-dog, Mushka, with me (she’s since deceased.) One time, I was going out to breakfast with some friends, and couldn’t take the dog with me. I conveniently dumped her at my brother’s house because it had a fenced yard.
I had been staying at my parent’s house, about 2 miles away from my brother’s house. Somehow, Mushka got out of the yard, and ran all the way to my parent’s house.
I had just gotten to town, and I know I hadn’t driven her directly from one house to the other, nor walked her from one to the other in at least a year or two, if ever. There were people at both homes, and from the time she left to the time she showed up at my parent’s was about 10 minutes or so. She went directly there - didn’t dawdle at all.
I was amazed that she knew the way - those dogs are smarter than we think!
These are very interesting stories, but there aren’t any confirmed cases of true cross-country journeys by pets? I’m almost certain I’ve heard of something along the lines of say, Kansas to California, something like that.
Usually, the way I’ve heard it, is the animal makes its way back to the old house, whereby the new owners notice a ‘strange’ dog hanging around. Eventually, it’s determined that Fido has somehow made it home again.
Can’t find anything on the web for some reason. Hafta check a little more.
Ripley stories have some basis in fact?
When I was a kid, I read in Ripley’s that if you picked a Guinea Pig up by the tail, its eyes would literally fall out of their sockets!
I believed this for about 10 years until someone pointed out that Guinea Pigs don’t have tails…