Family welcomes home Molly the Lab Dog’s 3-week odyssey ends in loving arms

Observers were still marveling Tuesday at the endurance of a black Labrador retriever that survived a nearly three-week, 200-mile trek through the Maine woods after a boating accident claimed the life of the dog’s owner.

Tuesday was another day of reunions for Molly the black Lab as she rejoined more of the children of her late owner. Doug Harmon of Scarborough and another man died when their boat capsized in the chilly waters of Chamberlain Lake in the Allagash Wilderness Waterway on Memorial Day.

Molly was apparently again headed south Tuesday – but this time in a vehicle – to go live with Harmon’s children and his ex-wife.

More details also emerged about how Molly, who was presumed dead after the accident, made her way from Chamberlain Lake to a house in Millinocket where she was taken in by a family before someone made the connection to the Allagash tragedy.

Al Cowperthwaite, director of North Maine Woods, said his office received more calls Tuesday from people who believe they spotted the dog while traveling in the forest. North Maine Woods is the nonprofit group that helps keep the state’s northern forests open to recreationists.

“I’m going to guess that a lot of people saw that dog during the past three weeks and didn’t have any idea it was lost,” Cowperthwaite said.

Molly was spotted numerous times by rangers, campers and sportsmen as she made her way south and east. Several people who knew Molly was on the loose tried to coax her into their vehicles, but she always ran away.

Looking at the sightings, Cowperthwaite speculated that Molly largely stuck to the gravel logging roads that criss-cross the region. He was still perplexed about how Molly, who is believed to be 4 or 5 years old, went from Scraggly Lake to Millinocket. Not many roads connect the areas, and Molly would have somehow had to cross the Penobscot River.

“It’s amazing,” Cowperthwaite said. “There are a lot of animals in that forest, like bears and coyotes. I would like to have had a camera on its back to see all of the things that dog has seen over the past three weeks.”

Although not exactly commonplace, there are ample stories of pets, and especially dogs, covering enormous distances before being found, sometimes years later. Recent examples include:

. A Boston terrier from Kansas City was found last spring 1,100 miles away in Montana four years after becoming lost. It was unclear whether the dog was taken in by others during that time.

. A basset hound was found earlier this month in Arizona six months after disappearing from its California home, 430 miles away.

Dr. Linda Lord, an assistant professor at Ohio State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, has researched lost animal recovery issues as part of her work on the relationships between humans and their companion animals.

Lord said researchers are still unable to explain how some animals find their way home. Some believe it is scent-related, but that seems less likely in instances where animals covered large distances, Lord said.

And dogs aren’t the only pets with a strong sense of direction. Lord documented the case of an Ohio cat that had spent its entire life inside but somehow made its way 10 or 12 miles, crossing several major highways along the way, back to its original home just after the family relocated to a new home.

“We really don’t have a good grasp on that, if there is some sort of sixth sense or enhanced detection ability that they have,” Lord said. “But those stories are the rare ones. What we found in our study is the majority of [lost] animals are found less than a mile from home.”

Lord and a team of colleagues published two studies earlier this year looking at the recovery rates of cats and dogs in the Dayton, Ohio, area. What they found was that dogs were more likely to be returned home than cats, but the success rate was highest when the animals had identification tags.

Owners of lost pets had higher success by checking with local shelters or by hanging posters. Microchips implanted under pets’ fur that carry identification information also aid in recovery, Lord said.

“I try to emphasize how critically important it is to identify your pet,” Lord said. “There is nothing that replaces a visual ID.”