Tag: Luna

5 Weeks Later, Dog Lost at Sea Rescued from Island

As Nick Haworth pulled in lobster traps on a boat off the coast of San Diego last month, his 1-year-old German Shepherd/Husky mix, Luna, jumped into the water and disappeared.

Haworth and others on board “looked everywhere for her,” Sandy DeMunnik, spokeswoman for Naval Base Coronado, told the Associated Press. “They couldn’t see her. The water was dark, and she’s dark.”

Along with Navy personnel, Haworth continued searching the water for Luna for two days, with no luck. Still, Haworth refused to give up hope that Luna had managed to swim 2 miles to nearby San Clemente Island. Navy personnel searched the island for a week by land and air, but there was no sign of Luna.

“She blended right in,” Navy wildlife biologist Melissa Booker told the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Ten days after Luna disappeared, Haworth finally gave up hope. “RIP Luna,” he wrote on his Facebook page Feb. 20.

But Tuesday morning, five weeks after she went overboard, Navy personnel found Luna sitting by the side of a road on San Clemente Island. (The island, owned by the Navy and not open to civilians or pets, is used as a training base.)

“She was just sitting there, wagging her tail,” DeMunnik told the AP.

The crew members “literally opened up the car door, whistled and she jumped right in,” Booker told the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Although she had lost some weight, Luna was otherwise healthy and uninjured. She apparently survived on a diet of rodents and dead fish that had washed up on shore.

When the Navy called Haworth with the good news about Luna, he was “so happy and grateful and thrilled,” DeMunnik told the AP.

Along with the weight, Luna lost her ID tag. The Navy gave her a new one, inscribed with “For Luna, Keep the Faith” — an important lesson taught to Navy and Marine personnel in the island’s Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) course.

Haworth has been working out of state, but will be reunited with Luna this afternoon. Stay tuned for an update on what’s sure to be a tissue-box-worthy event.

“Beyond stoked to have Luna back,” Haworth wrote on his Facebook page yesterday. “I always knew she was a warrior.”

UPDATE:

“I’m just glad to have her home,” Haworth told the Associated Press after he was reunited with Luna tonight. “I never thought I’d see her again, to be honest with you.”

Haworth said Luna will join him again on the fishing boat soon, but some changes will be made.

“We got to keep a better eye on her, keep her on a leash on the boat, maybe even a doggy life jacket,” he told the AP.

Photo via YouTube

Golden Retriever Dies after Eating Sugarless Gum

Luna, a 2-year-old Golden Retriever, chewed open a pack of Ice Breakers sugarless gum Monday night and ate its entire contents. One day later, Luna had to be euthanized due to the severe liver damage she suffered.

“She was like our first child,” Luna’s grief-stricken dog mom, Samantha Caress of Glenwood City, Wisc., told KARE.

Luna had found the gum when Caress and her boyfriend, Jordan Pellett, were not at home. When she appeared to be sick Tuesday morning, they rushed her to an animal emergency hospital and left her there for treatment.

The hospital called the couple a few hours later. “They said her blood came back and it wasn’t good,” Caress told KARE.

Medical care for Luna’s liver failure would have cost $20,000, which the couple could not afford. “And they said it was still only a 25-percent chance that she would live from it,” Caress said, crying. “We just didn’t want her to suffer, so we had to put her down.”

Xylitol Is Extremely Toxic for Dogs

Xylitol, a sugar alcohol used as a sweetener, is highly toxic for dogs. If ingested, even small amounts can cause hypoglycemia and liver failure. It is a common ingredient in sugarless gum — as well as sugar-free candy and baked goods, along with cough drops, vitamins, toothpaste, dental floss and other common household products.

If xylitol is one of the first five ingredients listed for a product, it is really important to keep the item out of your dog’s reach, as Caress and her family tragically discovered.

“As little as a couple of pieces of gum can result in severe hypoglycemia, a life-threatening drop in blood sugar and actually liver failure,” Dr. Justine Lee, of the Animal Emergency and Referral Center of Minnesota, told KARE.

According to the ASPCA, other artificial sweeteners, such as sorbitol and aspartame, will not cause life-threatening liver failure or hypoglycemia, but may cause diarrhea.

Dr. Lee advised pet parents to add contact information for their veterinarian and ASPCA’s Animal Poison Control (888-426-4435) to their phones in case of an emergency.

The symptoms of xylitol poisoning include vomiting, staggering and seizures. Your dog may not show these symptoms until hours after eating the item, when it may be too late. So, if you know your dog has digested xylitol, take him to the vet immediately. Don’t induce vomiting unless your vet instructs you to do so.

To honor their beloved dog, Caress and Pellet have created the Luna’s Gift of Hope account on GoFundMe.com. Donations will go to CoCo’s Heart Dog Rescue in Hudson, Wisc.

“Our goal right now is set at pretty high at $20,000. It is just what it would have cost to try to save Luna,” Caress told KARE. “So, if we could raise all those proceeds to help them save other dogs, that’d be great.”

Photo via Twitter

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