A dog which went missing on a grueling sled race in Alaska last Friday has been found safe and well - having traveled up to 400 miles on her own in rugged, freezing conditions.
9-year-old May, a strawberry blond sled dog, became separated from her team when her musher - or sled leader - stopped to help another racer on the annual Iditarod Sled Dog Race.
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It was yesterday when she finally emerged to the surprise of the group of snowmobile drivers who stumbled across her.
Kaitlin Koch, Matt Clark and Michael Hansmeyer had taken a break to consider where to go next when out of nowhere she appeared - still wearing her red harness.
'We had just pulled over on the side of the trail and were talking about where we should go next,' said Clark, 22.
'About 100 yards away a dog was trotting down the trail. It was coming at a pretty slow pace and we were waiting to see if someone on a four-wheeler or snow-machine was with her.'
'We'd heard about a missing dog, but we figured we were too far away,' Clark said.
'Kaitlin was like, 'That's that sled dog.' And we were like, 'There's no way, that sled dog's dead. A wolf would've got it.''
Koch added: 'I stopped my sled and got off and went to the ground and she came right up to me. She sat in my lap the entire trip back to Big Lake.'
'I'm still in utter amazement at how far she got.'
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