A canine castaway who was feared lost at sea has been reunited with her owner after surviving for more than four months on an uninhabited island.

The pet cattle dog, named Sophie Tucker, was assumed to have drowned when she was washed overboard as Jan Griffiths and her family were sailing off Australia’s Queensland coast last November, The Age reports.

In fact, Sophie was at the beginning of a real-life Robinson Crusoe adventure. The determined dog swam five nautical miles though shark-infested waters before coming ashore on a nature reserve called St. Bees Island.

Quickly adapting to her new circumstances, she then preyed on wild goats for food, before eventually being caught by park rangers who occasionally patrol the island.

Hearing about the dog’s capture, Griffiths contacted park officials and was astonished to discover that the animal was indeed Sophie Tucker – albeit a very different dog to the family’s beloved pet.

“She had become wild and vicious,” Griffith said. “She wouldn’t let anyone go near her or touch her. She wouldn’t take food from anyone. We called the dog and she started whimpering and banging the cage and they let her out and she just about flattened us. She wriggled around like a mad thing.”

But the dog quickly adjusted to life back home, Griffiths said, despite the presence of Ruby, a red cattle dog the family had bought during Sophie’s absence.

“She surprised us all. She was a house dog and look what she’s done, she’s swum over five nautical miles, she’s managed to live off the land all on her own,” Griffiths said. “We wish she could talk, we truly do.”

This entry was posted on Monday, April 6th, 2009 at 10:08 pm and is filed under Dogs, Ocean, Pets, Weird. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.