Last fall, DogTime.com told you about Zander, a Siberian Husky mix who wouldn’t let a couple pesky miles stand between him and his beloved owner, who’d been hospitalized. Determined to see his owner again, Zander walked two miles over treacherous roads and unfamiliar territory to pay his dad a visit.
German Shepherd mix Ben, a dog adopted from a Terre Haute, Indiana shelter in March, made the 10-mile trip between his new home and the shelter just to see his shelter mate Jade one more time. His arduous journey inspired his new family to bring Jade home, too.
Now a shy Collie mix from across the pond is making headlines after traveling 10 miles from home to reunite with his owner at her parents’ home, even surviving being hit by a car on the dangerously busy M5 motorway.
Eight-month-old Brieze is a nervous dog, says his owner Sarah Walter. “He has an extreme terror of all humans,” she explains. The only person he really trusts is Walter. But when Walter had to take her other dog in for a medical appointment, she was forced to leave skittish Brieze at her home near Staverton, England, under the care of a dog sitter.
On her way home from the appointment, Walter decided to drop in and visit her parents. Walter’s mom and dad live in Leckhampton, a town roughly 10 miles from her home, where, unbeknownst to Walter, Brieze was waiting quite impatiently for her return.
So impatiently, in fact, that Brieze managed to slip past his sitter, escape from the yard and take off into a field.
“He’s a bit like an eel and gets past you if he wants to,” Walter says of Brieze. “He had managed to squeeze through the secure paddock and into an exterior area.”
That’s when Walter got the call every lost dog owner fears — a police officer told Walter her dog had been hit by a car traveling at 70 mph, and though Brieze had limped away from the roadside the collision had surely been hard enough to be fatal.
“I believed that being hit at 70 mph would not be survivable,” Walter tells PawNation.com.
Devastated and believing the worst, she took off for the area near the M5, desperate to find her missing and injured dog. But her hunt didn’t turn up even a small sign of Brieze’s whereabouts. Feeling dejected, Walters headed home after four hours of scouring the countryside in vain. That night, she fell into a troubled sleep, grieving the loss of the dog she’d been trying so hard to rehabilitate.
Then, around 5 a.m., her phone rang. Walter’s mother had called with some unbelievable news. In a scene straight out of Homeward Bound, Brieze had appeared across the yard, limping towards her parents house — a house Brieze had only ever visited from inside of the car.
“He wouldn’t have had a clue how to get there and every time I’ve gone there with him, I’ve done the journey in a car,” Walter tells the Daily Mail. “He must have an in-built navigation system,” she jokes.
Overjoyed, Walter went to reunite with the dog she was sure had died along the roadside of the M5. Miraculously, Brieze’s injuries were not life threatening, and he is expected to make a full recovery.
Sources: Daily Mail, PawNation.com
