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Despite changing into dry clothes, Milling was hypothermic. She crawled into her sleeping bag and tried to recover, but could not. Nanook, however, would not stop licking her face.
Milling finally pressed the button on her SPOT GPS rescue device so that Alaskan State Troopers could find her. For hours, she remained curled up on the riverbank alongside Nanook. Finally, a rescue helicopter spotted her red sleeping bag and airlifted her to a medical facility.
A state trooper then took Nanook back to the address that was listed on his dog tag. The dog’s owner, Scott Swift, listened to a recounting of the incredible events that had transpired, and the Anchorage man was stunned.
“I was definitely pretty floored. It sends chills up my spine when I think about it. I certainly didn’t train him to do anything like this,” Swift told the Canadian news outlet. “It’s a pretty powerful feeling that this dog had this instinctual ability to want to go help people.”
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This is not the first time that Nanook has rescued a distressed hiker, either – after Milling’s story started being shared by news outlets, others came forward with news of the dog’s bravery. One traveler even said that the husky had rescued their child from the same river from which he rescued Milling. More surprisingly, Swift says that Nanook was never trained as rescue dog – he was adopted from a pet event in a Walmart parking lot.
Swift has since created a Facebook page for people to share their own Nanook stories – and to praise him for his incredible rescue career.
“Nookie was nothing short of a modern-day Lassie hero,” Alaska State Trooper Lt. Eric Olsen told KTVA. “Nookie has a true love for humans, and for what he does and he’s an incredible dog.”
(WATCH the video below)
Be Sure And Share This Pawesome Story With Your Friends – Photo by Amelia Milling
A wonderful story! Animals can be good rescuers–physically and emotionally 🙂