That's a long doggone walk

CONSTANCE SEE

Hungry Horse News

If dogs could talk, Brandy the Brittany spaniel would probably have some tales to tell.

The dog was lost near Eureka late last month and was caught at one of Glacier National Park's most remote lakes - a full 50-plus miles away.

Brandy was lost near Glen's Lake near Eureka about Aug. 24, said Park ranger Regi Altop. About a week later, on the Labor Day weekend, someone spotted the dog near Ford cabin, which is on the Inside North Fork Road on the way to Kintla Lake - that's across the Whitefish Divide as well.

Kintla Lake is 14 miles north of Polebridge by dirt road inside Glacier's North Fork region. It is the most remote campground by vehicle in the Park. It's not exactly dog-friendly, either. There's everything from grizzlies to wolves in this neck of the woods. And by the time she got to the Park, Brandy had been on the road with no food for a good week.

Altop said the dog apparently kept going north until she made it to the Kintla Lake campground. There, a visitor was able to catch her and she was taken to West Glacier where the Park has a temporary kennel for dogs.

Altop said it's pretty unusual for someone to lose a dog up in the North Fork. He could only think of one other time, and that was about 16 years ago.

The Park has strict regulations about letting dogs run loose, so seeing one running around on its own draws attention pretty quickly.

As Brandy sat in the kennel, Linda Reed, who works at the Polebridge entrance station, started calling around to see if she could find the dog's owners. The dog's tags indicated she was from near Calgary, Alberta.

Altop surmises the dog was heading north trying to get home when she was caught.

Being the holiday weekend, Reed wasn't having much luck. But then on Tuesday she got a call and plans to reunite Brandy with her family were put in place.

The friends from Glen Lake where Brandy was lost would take the dog back home.

The reunion came just in time. Brandy's owners were planning on having a memorial service for her when the call came in she was alive.