When you’re stressing out about a lost pet, keep in mind that even domesticated animals have strong natural instincts that humans can’t fully understand. This one checked every home her family had lived in previously, covering a good chunk of the California coastline, until she found her way home.
“This wasn’t my dog, but my girlfriend’s family dog, and it’s probably one hell of a story, but most of it is unknown. They moved a lot due to various factors, before finally settling down in a suburb outside of Sacramento. Their family dog had moved with them, multiple times, across California. She was an incredibly smart and good girl, the kind of dog who apparently just automatically understood what was needed by her human at any point. Her father would often take the dog hunting and fishing, and the dog had some kind of natural instinct for it.
While moving around, this dog also made tons of doggy friends. My girlfriend’s family lived in some unconventional housing situations, like on a farm, or in the backyard of another person, chasing work up and down the state. Tons of animal friends. Well, one day, their dog got out and disappeared. They thought all was lost, until they received a call from an old neighbor, asking them why they brought the dog over to play with their dog, but they didn’t even stop by to say hello. Her family hopped in the car to try to get to this home (it was about a two-hour drive away), but by the time they got there, the dog had already escaped.
To make a two-month story short, this dog went through and visited every single neighborhood that she had lived in, visiting all of her friends, and my girlfriend’s family kept getting confused calls from people asking them why their dog was there. They eventually gave up trying to chase her and left her to her devices. One day, the dog showed up on their front steps, slightly skinnier and a little scratched up, but not too worse for wear.
That dog had gone on a tour of California, visiting all of her doggy friends and other animal friends, for the heck of it, and then lived another few years as a calm house dog with one hell of a hunting and fishing instinct. It’s unbelievable, but they have the people to back the story up. They’ve kept in contact with their landlords and neighbors, and they’ll corroborate the story of said dog visiting randomly for a few hours one day and then disappearing.”
