That’s a lot of doggy paddling.
By Austin Cannon | Daily Paws
Traveling in any motor-less manner for 5 miles sounds like absolute damnation, but swimming that distance has to be the worst of the worst. Maybe not for Monster the dog, though.
Last week, shrimp boat captain Keith “Kiwi” Soffes was shrimping in Galveston Bay (off the coast of Texas) when Monster, who often accompanies him, fell overboard, according to KRIV. He said he hadn’t seen her for 10–15 minutes and realized something was amiss when she didn’t come running as he began pulling up the boat’s nets.
“My heart just fell,” he told KTBC. “I just couldn’t even speak.”
After searching his boat and calling other vessels in the area, Soffes spent hours looking for her but found no trace. He then posted updates and pleas to Facebook, hoping someone would recognize his missing dog.
Finally, he said someone responded to him on Facebook, saying she’d seen a dog who looked like Monster at a local park.
“I said, ‘Man, she couldn’t have made that swim,'” Soffes told KTBC. “There’s no way that dog swam that far.”
But he went to look, and another woman said she’d seen the dog swimming across the bay. Eventually, he found the man who’d found Monster at a nearby mobile home park five days after she’d gone missing.
“I was crying so hard I couldn’t even talk,” he said. “She was giving me so many kisses.”
He figures Monster likely swam 4–6 miles back to safety and credits her survival to all the time she’s spent swimming and on the boat. Previously, Monster had chewed off life jackets, but Soffes believes he’s found a new one (and a tracking device) that should allow them to go back out on the water soon.
This story has been edited to clarify how Soffes discovered Monster was missing and that he’s acquired a new life jacket for her.
This article originally appeared on Daily Paws: https://www.dailypaws.com/pet-news-entertainment/feel-good-stories/monster-swims-5-miles-back-to-shore
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