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LONDON (UK) — If
you happened to have seen a dark, panting snout looming out of the Solent
waterway, traveling at speeds of up to 2 mi/hr between the Isle of Wight
and the English mainland on Wednesday, calm down. It was not
the Loch Ness Dog.
But you might be even more shocked to learn
that it was a 2-year-old Labrador Retriever named "Todd" who had fallen off a
yacht and managed to make his way to shore.
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Is that the theme from "Jaws" I hear?
"Todd" the Black Lab swam for six hours and 10 miles across the
Solent, a busy shipping-lane south of Beaulieu, UK, where the exhausted
pooch hauled himself up onto dry land, just eight miles from his home in
Winsor.
(Photo: BBC
News)
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Peter Loizou, 35, had noticed his dog missing from the deck as the boat
passed about a mile off the coast of the Isle of Wight. Frantic, the
man searched the windswept waters for four hours but to no avail.
"I contacted the harbour master who searched but I then thought,
realistically he has drowned," Mr. Loizou told reporters.
"I turned back devastated, thinking I never want to go on the boat
again."
A Brilliant Navigator
Meanwhile, Todd's adventure was just beginning. Contrary to what
you might expect, the determined pooch did not swim the one-mile distance
to the Isle of Wight. Instead, he took the longer route across the
Solent, through the busy shipping lanes and against heavy offshore winds
pushing him in the opposite direction.
 Then,
about five miles later, he altered course and took a detour up the River
Beaulieu. (Map: BBC
News)
At last, six hours and ten miles after his journey began, Todd hauled
himself onto dry land, practically at his own doorstep. The
brilliant Labrador had swum a direct course for his home in Winsor and had
covered more than half the distance when he was picked up by a 16-year-old
boy and taken to police.
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A microchip in Todd's ear
filled in the rest of the details. Once the authorities had
scanned it, it was just a matter of time before the Lab was reunited with
Mr. Loizou, who was beside himself with amazement.
"He swam across the waves,
across the currents to get home," said the man.
"I am so pleased to see
him, he is like a child to me."
"That was fun, Pete.
Can we do it again?"
(Photo: Southampton Daily Echo)
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