Dog walks 178km across rough terrain trying to find his way home

THIS Golden Retriever walked 178 kilometres over rugged terrain to find his way home. But he didn’t just save himself.

Gonker was Fielding Marshall’s best friend, and his vanishing set off a wide and desperate search. Picture: Facebook.

FIELDING Marshall’s baby daughter died on the operating table in 1991 during a procedure to repair her heart.

His girlfriend responded to the tragedy by packing up her possessions and disappearing without a word, reports the New York Post.

Alone and drowning beneath an “oceanic wave of sadness,” Mr Marshall had an idea.

He would get a dog.

Mr Marshall brought home a golden-retriever mix from the local SPCA, and the mutt, whom he named Gonker, became his closest companion, helping to fill the void of everything he’d lost.

Gonker became Marshall’s best friend. Picture: Facebook.

Gonker was playful. He would fetch sticks for hours. He was also a lifesaver. After a house party, Mr Marshall woke to Gonker’s frantic barking. He explored the house to find a friend, who was passed out in the bathroom with a poisonous snake slithering nearby. Good boy, Gonker.

But the dog had health problems. He was diagnosed with Addison’s disease, an adrenal insufficiency that can cause humans and animals to lapse into a coma if not treated. Gonker required monthly injections of synthetic hormones to stay alive.

Ten days after an injection on October 10, 1998, Gonker bolted while hiking with his master in the Appalachian Trail near the Blue Ridge Parkway, leaving Mr Marshall desperate to find his beloved best friend.

The cover of Pauls Toutonghi's book. Picture: Facebook.

The true story is told in Dog Gone: A Lost Pet’s Extraordinary Journey and the Family Who Brought Him Home by Pauls Toutonghi, who is Mr Marshall’s brother-in-law.

“Dogs are almost always decent — unchanging, unaltered, predictable,” Mr Toutonghi writes. “Dogs can make us more human — or more like what we imagine a good human to be.”

It’s yet another worthy entry about that special human-pup bond, which goes back centuries. The Egyptians, Babylonians and Assyrians all immortalised their dogs in carvings.

That relationship has only deepened over time.

When Gonker first took off, Mr Marshall searched but found no sign of his beloved pet.

Blue Ridge Parkway. Picture: Supplied.

He worried about Gonker’s ability to withstand the cold and feared that the mutt might be mistaken for a deer and shot by a hunter. Worst of all, Gonker would soon need a fresh injection, and if he wasn’t found within about two weeks, he’d die.

Mr Marshall’s mother set up a command centre in her home. She spread a detailed map across the table and spent the early days desperately calling animal hospitals, police stations and newspapers.

Mr Marshall plastered the neighbourhood with flyers and walked the trail with his father calling the dog’s name. A park ranger advised the owner to stay in the area as much as possible so the dog could key on the scent.

Their plight even hit the local media. “The family is fearful that [Gonker] is hungry, confused and frightened,” an October 15 news story read. The family began getting tips — few of them helpful.

One anonymous man phoned Mr Marshall’s mother to ask if she’d found the dog. “Well, you ain’t going to, neither,” the caller said before hanging up.

As the search dragged on, hope began to fade.

Pauls Toutonghi is Marshall’s brother-in-law. Picture: Facebook.

By day 13, nearly every avenue for finding Gonker was exhausted. Mr Marshall and his father were reduced to desperately shouting the animal’s name into the darkness on a rainy night.

“Gonker!” they bellowed. “Where are you?’ ” Nowhere close by.

On October 25, Mr Marshall’s mother received a call from a police officer reporting that Gonker had been spotted eating from trash cans behind a ski resort. The pooch had wandered an incredible 178 kilometres in 15 days, covering at least 11 kilometres a day, looking for a way home.

Mr Marshall drove to Wintergreen and was reunited. “Dog and owner collided next to the car ... and fell to the ground in a heap.”

Gonker was hardly the worse for wear. His paws were cut up from the rough terrain, but he’d actually gained a pound during his journey.

He lived another five years, to the age of 11. The megaphone that the family had used to call for him during the search is still prominently displayed at the Marshall house.

Mr Marshall has since moved to Chile to be closer to “untamed wilderness.” There, he met a Chilean woman, and the couple now has two children, a boy, 8, and girl, 5.

He also has a new dog. Of course.

This story first appeared in the New York Post.

Originally published as Dog walks 178km across rough terrain trying to find his way home