Russian Ice-Breaking Ship Rescues Samoyed Dog Who Was Stranded on Arctic Ice Fields

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An ice-breaking ship made quite the rescue last week when it came across a small, white dog wandering the arctic ice fields in northern Russia.

The dog, a Samoyed named Aika, had been missing from a village, Mys Kamenny, for more than a week, CNN reports. The Russian crew of the Alexander Sannikov icebreaker lowered a ladder for her to come aboard.

"We put out the ladder, by which the dog climbed aboard on its own. Later, with the help of [a] mobile phone, we established contact with the local population, found the owner of the dog," navigation assistant Evgeny Nagibin said, per CNN.

Video footage from the rescue shows Aika seeing her saviors, wagging her tail a little bit, and then walking carefully over to the boat. Once she climbed aboard she wagged her tail some more as she received what we're guessing were many, many pets. Without her rescuers, Aika had almost no chance of surviving much longer.

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According to her owner, Svetlana Chereshneva of Mys Kamenny, Aika ran away during their walk around the village days before.

"The dog didn't go anywhere without us, we have no idea how she got there," Chereshneva said, per CNN.

How our little friend survived several days alone in the arctic weather is a mystery, but we're guessing her weather-resistant double coat probably had something to do with it. The breed traces its origins back to Siberia, and there are few places colder on Earth. We're just glad she didn't fall asleep and end up on an entirely different continent.