Mom Presumes Dog Is Dead After 73 Days In Bitter Cold When Officers Learn She’s The Town Stray

Animal control officers in Kansas City responded to a call about a stray dog in dire need. A black Lab mix was spotted pacing back and forth along the bank of an icy lagoon amid subzero temperatures.

The officers arrived to find the helpless dog standing at the bottom of a 10-foot embankment after having sought shelter on a small piece of land surrounded by water. She was trapped and stranded in the snow, ice, and freezing temperatures. They also found a nest, which led them to believe she had been living there for several days without a viable source of food.

The biggest struggle was trying to find a way to scale down the embankment and pull the 60-pound animal back up the 10-foot slope. It took a team of five dedicated officers to send a ladder and kennel down the wall and bring her back up to the top.

Little did the team know that tips had been pouring in about this exact same pup. Community members had been spotting the elusive dog around town, where home security cameras showed her popping up on neighbor’s porches… but she’d always manage to evade capture.

As it turned out, this was no stray dog at all — and no one could believe just how long she’d been out there on her own, or how she’d managed to survive.

Learn more in the video.

This story originally appeared at LittleThings.