Dog that fell overboard swam 5 miles to reunite with owner

• Monster the dog fell overboard while her owner, shrimp boat captain Keith “Kiwi” Soffes, was sailing in Galveston Bay.
• Kiwi spent hours looking for Monster but couldn’t find her so he posted a “Missing Dog” ad on Facebook.
• Monster was later reunited with Kiwi five days later after he likely swam 5 miles back to safety.

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Shrimp boat captain Keith “Kiwi” Soffes was sailing in Galveston Bay last week when his dog fell overboard, according to KRIV. Monster, the dog, often tags along on his shrimp boat.

Kiwi said he didn’t notice Monster was gone until he was about 5 miles from shore.

“We just headed back to the dock. Monster was doing her regular old thing that she’s always done,” Soffes told KRIV. “Goes back there are barks at the birds, does the Monster thing.”

“We got to where we’re going to load the net up on the back of the boat to come home, and she always goes back there, grabs the net, and starts pulling on it. And when she wasn’t there,” Kiwi added.

“My heart just fell,” he told KTBC. “I just couldn’t even speak.”

Kiwi desperately spent hours looking for Monster but he didn’t find her. He then turned to Facebook to post a ‘missing dog’ plea, hoping someone would recognize his beloved dog.

Finally, someone had responded to him on Facebook, saying she’d seen a dog who looked like Monster at a nearby park.

“I said, ‘Man, she couldn’t have made that swim,’” he told KTBC. “There’s no way that dog swam that far.”

He went to look and another woman told him she’d seen the dog swimming across the bay. Eventually, Kiwi was reunited with Monster at a nearby mobile home park five days after she’d gone missing.

“I was crying so hard I couldn’t even talk,” he said. “She was giving me so many kisses.”

Kiwi figures Monster likely swam 4–6 miles back to shore. He says the dog survives because she’s spent a lot of time swimming. He said Monster will wear a life jacket on the boat along with a tracking device from now on.

Source: Daily Paws