Bella Rose Is Home After 70 Days Lost in Alaska Bear Country

Bella Rose is home. The extra large American Bully, chocolate and tan, slipped her leash on August 26 outside Twin Cities Veterinary Clinic in Soldotna, Alaska, and vanished into woods where bears roam. Seventy days later, on the night of November 4, she stepped into a pen built for her at the Soldotna landfill, pawed at her own blanket inside it, and the door closed behind her. She was caught safely and is home recovering, according to KTUU, Alaska's News Source, whose reporting the accounts below are based on.

Her owner, Rufus Arroyo, is a Soldotna resident of 20 years who works on call at Central Peninsula Hospital. He searched for the full 70 days. "It was just a parent looking after their kid," he told KTUU. This is the short, good story of the day, and every detail in it comes from that reporting.

How she got lost

Arroyo's brother had taken Bella Rose to the clinic to update her shot records before her second birthday. He had broken his arm the week before. Bella Rose is a skittish dog, and at the clinic she began racing in circles around him. Rather than fall and injure the arm again, he let go of the leash. She bolted across Kalifornsky Beach Road at the height of rush hour and disappeared into the trees, still wearing a purple buckle collar and an orange training collar, with the gray leash attached. A lost dog notice went out on local radio the next day.

The search

A loose dog in that country faces traffic, cold weather moving in, and wild animals. Arroyo kept looking, and a local group, Kenai Peninsula Animal Lovers, known as KPAL and led by realtor Kelly Griebel, lent him traps and helped organize the effort. Sightings and false starts stretched across September and October. The search settled on the landfill, where she had been drawn, and the team set a pen about 4 by 8 feet with a pressure plate door and her own blanket inside it. Landfill staff and Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Peter Micciche helped bring her home, according to the reporting.

On November 4, Arroyo watched a live camera feed from a hill above the landfill. At about 9:30 p.m., Bella Rose edged into view, stepped into the pen, pawed at the blanket, and the door shut. Arroyo told KTUU he had been crying all day and was lost for words.

Why the blanket worked

Lost dogs often circle back to places that smell familiar, and the search team built the ending around that habit. The pen sat where she had already been coming, the door needed only her own weight on a pressure plate, and the blanket inside carried the scent of home. Arroyo did not have to chase her or call her in. He had to be patient, keep the trap in the right place, and watch. On the last night he watched from the hill above the landfill on a camera feed, close enough to reach her fast once the door closed, and far enough away that his presence would not scare her off. Seventy days of searching came down to a few quiet seconds, and the dog chose the trap herself.

That patience is the part of the story other owners of lost dogs will take from Soldotna. Traps lent by a local rescue group, staff at a town landfill who kept an eye out, a borough mayor who helped, and a camera on a hill did what shouting a name in the woods could not do in August. Bella Rose came home before the deep Alaska winter set in, and she came home on her own four feet.

One last detail

After she was safe, Arroyo noticed the date. Bella Rose was caught exactly two years to the day, and by his account to the hour, after her grandmother, a dog named Athena Rose, had died. She is now home in Soldotna, recovering from 70 days that covered a highway, bear country, and a town dump, and a search that a whole town helped finish.