Castaway Cattledog survives after lost at sea.

[Cattledog]

A canine castaway lost at sea five months ago has been reunited with her owners after washing up on an island off the central Queensland coast and living off goats and koalas.

Jan and Dave Griffith were devastated when their Australian cattle dog, Sophie Tucker, fell overboard in choppy waters off Mackay in late November, while the trio were on a boat trip to Scawfeld Island.



http://www.theage.com.au/national/canine-castaway-survives-five-months-on-island-20090406-9u0v.html?page=1

[livetohike]

1. Sophie Tucker - what a cutie

and what a story....Thanks for posting it. I'm going to hug my little cattle dog Murphy a little tighter now.

[doctor jazz]

2. That's a bittersweet story to me. Our cattledog Max vanished from the yard 12 days ago

during the night. She and our black Lab got out during a nighttime storm...we didn't even know they were out until the next morning and the lab came walking up the drive without his companion. Did all the newspaper ads, posters and many miles of searching, no trace. I think it looks bleak, she is deaf and might have been hit by a car that she couldn't hear. :cry:

[luvspeas]

6. I hope she is OK...

Maybe she's in someone's house/yard. Did you try Craigslist? She may have traveled farther than you think?

[Raine]

7. Aw I'm so sorry

ten years ago my dog got out, I know how you feel. :hug:

[depakid]

3. Sophie Tucker is one tough dog!

Sophie ... learned to live wild after swimming to island.
--------

....unbeknown to them, their hardy hound swam five nautical miles to St Bees Island, where she survived until last week by hunting baby goats. She was last week returned to her family after rangers captured what they believed was a wild dog.

Ms Griffith said she and her husband had contacted rangers after friends suggested the dog - who had earned a name for herself on the island - might be their long-lost pet. Last Tuesday the couple met the rangers' boat as it ferried the dog back to the mainland and were blown away to find Sophie Tucker on board. "We called the dog and she started whimpering and banging the cage and they let her out and she just about flattened us," Ms Griffith said. "She wriggled around like a mad thing."

But even more unbelievable was hearing how their domesticated "inside" dog had survived, she said. "She had looked really poor (on the island), the story was, and then all of a sudden she started to look good and it was when the rangers had found baby goat carcases so she'd started eating baby goats," she said.

"We think she'd swum close to five nautical miles from the boat where she went in and then some people believe she went backwards and forwards from Keswick to St Bees (islands)." Ms Griffith said their pet had been quick to embrace her now easier existence - complete with air conditioning.

More: http://www.smh.com.au/national/incredible-journey-of-a-dog-called-sophie-tucker-20090406-9tv0.html

Check out the two islands where she hung out after her epic swim: http://maps.google.com/maps?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&hl=en&tab=wl&q=st%20bees%20island

[mnhtnbb]

4. I had a life vest that my Golden Retriever mix (animal shelter rescued)

always wore when we took her out on hubby's sailboat between Santa Monica and Catalina.

It can be rough--one time hubby almost went overboard--and I about had a heart attack because
it was when we were first dating and I knew nothing about sailing a boat by myself, except
how to turn off the motor!

[Kali]

5. Heelers are tough little mofo's that is for sure.

they seem to enjoy being kicked in the face by livestock.

A rotty/heeler cross showed up at the house a while back - he had jumped out of the back of some kid's pick-up going down the interstate at 75! He had a little contusion on his ass but otherwise seemed fine after that and a couple nights checking us out before he would come in and eat.