Sunday, April 12, 2009

Canine castaway found

A pet dog which was washed overboard on a boat trip has been found four months later - as a castaway on a remote Australian island.
Jan and Dave Griffith thought pet Sophie Tucker had drowned after she vanished in stormy waters off Queensland.
But the dog somehow survived a five mile swim through shark-infested waters to the largely uninhabited St Bees Island.
There she lived on a diet of baby goats until being found by visiting rangers, reports the BBC.
The Griffiths were amazed to hear of the discovery and have now been reunited with their pet.
"She surprised us all," said Mrs Griffith. "She was a house dog and look what she's done, she has swum over five nautical miles, she has managed to live off the land all on her own. We wish she could talk, we truly do."
The Griffiths had been on a sailing holiday off the north-east Queensland coast when Sophie Tucker - an Australian cattle dog - was lost overboard.
"We hit a rough patch and when we turned around the dog was gone," Mrs Griffith said.
There was an emotional reunion when the Griffiths met the rangers' boat bringing Sophie Tucker to the mainland.
"We called the dog and she started whimpering and banging the cage and when they let her out she just about flattened us," Mrs Griffith said.
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