Sled Dog Reunited After Highway Escape

Last week, a sled dog was lost after a highway accident. She has been found now and will be returned soon to Clam Gulch to her owner.

The dog, five-year-old Donna, went missing last Monday. Musher Frank Habermann, her owner, was driving from Fur Rondy in Anchorage back to Clam Gulch following an 11th-place finish when the trailer came off his truck. The doors opened and allowed some of the sled dogs to fall onto the Seward Highway, near Girdwood.

One of them ran onto an ice floe in Cook Inlet and was rescued later by the Anchorage Fire Department. But Donna ran off to Girdwood.

She was spotted on a cabin porch in India two days later. Some volunteers set a live trap to bring her back.

Habermann stated the hard part was bringing the skittish dog closer.

“She would not come close enough for them to grab her, which is her normal behavior,” he stated. “She’s the kind of dog with a wild animal personality.”

On Friday, four days after her escape, the volunteers lured her into a live trap. Now, she’s staying in Anchorage with one of Habermann’s friends.

Habermann said he was relieved. And all the dogs are doing okay.

“You couldn’t tell anything happened to the dogs,” he said.

He said that the trailer was made by a local maker, who will deal with the wreck and the associated costs.