Yukon dog returned home after unexpected ride to Arizona

Alyce Johnson is crediting her dog’s implanted microchip with helping bring the pooch back home after an epic, 10-day, 10,000-kilometre adventure to the American desert and back.

Johnson, who lives in remote Burwash Landing, Yukon, is still a bit baffled by what happened to her pitbull, Midnight, but she’s overjoyed to have her back home safe and sound.

According to Johnson, Midnight’s strange journey began in September while she was out of the territory in Vancouver. Some of her family were back home in the Yukon looking after the dog and took her out to their camp at the Duke and Kluane Rivers.

“And she ran off,” Johnson said.

The family looked hard for Midnight. Johnson’s grandson went back to the area several times that night in case the dog showed up, but she never did.

After Johnson returned home, she also went out to the area repeatedly in hopes of finding Midnight.     

“I had gone out two days in a row making a fire at specific sites, leaving my coat there just in case she showed up,” Johnson said.

“There’s trails that go all throughout that area that our dad and our family members have walked. So it was a matter of just continuing to look for her.”

It was while Johnson was out looking one night that her phone rang. It was an Arizona number, so she didn’t pick up.

“You know, sometimes you think it might be a scam, so you don’t answer it,” she said.

It wasn’t until the next day that she actually checked her voicemail. It was a veterinary hospital in Arizona, telling her that someone had found Midnight and had brought her in to be seen by a vet there. The vet identified Midnight and her owner by her microchip.

“If she didn’t have that chip, we would never have found her. We would never have known what happened to her,” Johnson said.

It turned out that Midnight had been picked up by someone on the highway in the Yukon, not long after she went missing. The man had said that he thought the dog was lost, according to Johnson — though she’s a bit sceptical.

“It was shocking. There are no words to describe the whole story. For him to take her. Everyone said it’s bizarre. It’s unheard of,” she said.

“People who pick up dogs will take them to find the owner, right? But not him. He didn’t. He just took her for a ride thinking that, you know, he was going to keep her,” Johnson said.

She figures the man ultimately decided he didn’t want to keep Midnight because of the dog’s “quirks,” like how she whines and barks sometimes when she’s in a vehicle.

Whatever the reason, the man agreed to bring the dog to Phoenix where a friend of Johnson’s granddaughter was going to be. From there, Midnight was ultimately flown home to Yukon.

Johnson said the dog was clearly excited to get home.

“She just was wailing and screaming, knowing that she was home, knowing that her comfortable bed is here,” Johnson said.

“She has her dog friends that come over to visit. So they were here that night, knocking on the door, trying to get in to visit with her.”