Survivor returns from unexpected voyage Outside

WILLOW -- A sled dog aptly named Survivor returned home Sept. 17 after being gone nearly a month since her abduction from her home in Willow.

On Aug. 16, Willow musher Nancy Crowden left her home to go pick raspberries. When she returned, she noticed one of her dogs was missing, along with the dog's chain.

Crowden called neighbors across the street knowing they had surveillance cameras set up on the street. They told her a truck had been in her driveway for nearly 10 minutes and they had recorded the truck on video.

With tape in hand, Crowden called the Alaska State Troopers and delivered the tape to the Talkeetna station. With information from the tape and a few phone calls Crowden said she was able to find out who probably took her dog and learned that the suspect had just left the state and was returning to his home in Mason, Wis.

"I was totally devastated when she was taken," Crowden said, adding that she couldn't sleep the night Survivor was taken, and was sick all the next day. "She's just a neat little dog."

Troopers called Dean Chambers, the man Crowden had tracked down, and told him it would be in his best interest to return the dog as soon as possible. Chambers reportedly had called Crowden and left a message saying he was sorry for taking the dog and would return her, but never called back, leaving her to make the next move.

Crowden contacted the local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Wisconsin and found the eastern Wisconsin group and Debbie Enockson, a member of the SPCA, who contacted the humane officer in Bayfield County.

After sheriff's deputies recovered the dog, Enockson contacted an AWARE member in Hurley, who provided kennel space for Survivor over the Labor Day weekend. Then, Eastern Wisconsin SPCA member Ann Voigt picked up the husky while on her way back from her cabin up north and brought her back to Sheboygan, where she stayed at the Humane Society shelter until EWSPCA could make arrangements to get her back to a relieved Crowden.

"When something like this comes up, you've got to do what you can," Enockson said.

Crowden, who is on disability, could not afford to pay to have Survivor shipped back to Alaska, so the EWSPCA picked up the $1,000 cost of flying her back home.

"What these folks in Wisconsin have done is really wonderful, and I think the story needs to be told. I never thought I'd see Survivor again," Crowden said. "I'm just overwhelmed with gratefulness."

"It's just nice to put a happy ending on something like this, especially when it could so easily have gone the other way," Enockson said.