The pup had several injuries when it was found and appeared exhausted and ‘in tears’
If there was ever any doubt about the lengths a dog will go to for its owners, this made-for-the-movies tail from Siberian should settle it.
Maru trekked 125 miles through forests, dodging bears and wolves, in a desperate bid to be reunited with its owner – who had earlier rejected the one-year-old Bullmastiff.
The pup had been put on the Trans-Siberian train to take her back to the kennels where she was born after her owner said she was allergic to the dog and no longer wanted her.
Maru wasn’t having it though and escaped from the train which was heading west from Krasnoyarsk to Novosibirsk. She used her paws to open a compartment door and fled as it stopped at a remote station near Achinsk.
Train staff shouted at the dog in the hope of her returning, but she was gone.
In Novosibirsk, kennel owner Alla Morozova organised a search party to find the lost dog and pleaded for information on social media.
Two-and-a-half days later Maru was found, exhausted and injured at an industrial estate close to the home she was rejected from after just six months.
According to reports, Maru appeared to be “in tears” when she was found.
The clever K9 had headed east next to the Trans-Siberian railway track – the longest in the world – and made it through 125 miles of wild countryside.
Alla told The Siberian Times: “Luckily neither bears ate her, nor wolves chewed her up. The dog was very tired. She was lame, her paws were broken. The pads on her feet were damaged. Her muzzle was broken.”
Maru is believed to have fallen down a railway embankment in Krasnoyarsk before being found and recognised.
Train staff told Alla that Maru had suffered a “panic attack” and was “frightened” of the noise the train made and being away from home and when she saw her chance to escape “jumped on the compartment door, kicked the handle to open it and almost threw the conductor out of the way.”
If it wasn’t for her injuries, Alla is convicted Maru would have made it to the doorstep of her former home.
“I’m sure she was looking for her house,” she said.
“Dogs are very attached to people. She did not run to Novosibirsk, she wanted to go back to where she lived.
Maru has now been reunited with her mother and father at Alla’s kennels in Novosibirsk and is receiving treatment for her injuries.
Read the full story in the Siberian Times here.
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