Russian Sailors Rescue Lost Dog Stranded on Arctic Iceberg and Reunite Pup with Her Family
A lost dog was rescued by Russian sailors on an icy mission.
The one-year-old puppy, named Aika, had wandered off from Arctic Russian town during a walk and turned up stranded on sea ice about a week later. The crew from an icebreaker ship spotted Aika the Samoyed - a native breed to northern Russia and Siberia known for their thick white coats - and decided to spring into action and save the dog.
The sailors let down a ladder and called out to the dog. Aika made her way to the ship and up the ladder, where her rescuers greeted the pooch with open arms and went to work warming up the pup.
Sailors caught part of the adorable rescue on camera. In the clip, obtained by Inside Edition, the pup wags her tail as she looks up at the ship's passengers from the jagged ice.
"We put out the ladder, by which the dog climbed aboard on its own. Later, with the help of mobile phone, we established contact with the local population, found the owner of the dog," said navigation assistant Evgeny Nagibin, CNN reports.
The sailors helped reunite Aika with her owner Svetlana Chereshneva, a resident of Mys Kamenny, who noted that her pup probably wouldn't have survived if the icebreaker crew hadn't saved her when they did.
"The dog didn't go anywhere without us. We have no idea how she got there," Chereshneva told CNN.
She said she's happy to have her friend back and that Aika is feeling much better following her week-long Arctic adventure.
