– He’s mostly been lying on my chest and warmed up since he got home, says food father Geir Nilsen. Okie, a twelve-week-old baby, ran away from home just as the Siberian cold set in.
Bone cold and pitch dark. Little Okie (12 weeks) had the odds stacked against him when he ran away from the Breiskallen home in Gjøvik municipality on Tuesday. After three days of intense searches, he was found on Friday.
By then, 250 volunteers had participated in the round-the-clock search. Police had arrived in a heat-seeking drone, the rescue service had donned survival suits and searched the nearby bridge, and specially trained dogs in a multitude of different forms of research had joined their owners.
Was Oppland Arbeiderblad who first mentioned the matter.
– I didn’t ask my husband for support and help, says Geir Nilsen, owner of a sniffing dog, on the phone with VG – partly for the joy of bringing the puppy home after three days. And partly because it takes a toll on your health to go out looking for hours when the scales swipe completely in the wrong direction.
At its coldest, it was minus 29 degrees on the days Okie wasn’t around. How she was able to survive is a mystery.
It was Tuesday of this week that Geir was supposed to take Okie to the Jack Russel terrier vet to get a vaccine. Geir went out to start the car and the dog followed him out.
– I said he could go out with me and pee. When I backed up I saw it throw itself away, and when I got out of the car it was gone.
Geir thinks the dog was spooked by the car and another driver driving by.
– I walked around the house and screamed and screamed. The ones who came in the other car shouted and searched with me but we didn’t find it. Then I got a little desperate.
Their son and daughter-in-law arrived, and the despair over the disappearance was shared on Facebook.
Then it took off.
– The police arrived quite quickly. They had a new heat-seeking drone and took it for training. They searched up and down the river. Then came people with ID dogs, hunting dogs and other volunteers. It was pretty chaotic at first, until Karoline Kristoffersen came along. She is fierce in searches and has helped many dogs get back to their owners.
So tells us Rita Marie Kristiansen, Geir Nilsen’s daughter-in-law. She was among those who were out in the freezing cold.
– That night it was minus 29 I was out for twelve hours in line. There was wool on wool under the bubble pants, she says.
Matfar Geir was advised to light a bonfire outside the house so Okie could see and smell them. The cage with its mattress was placed on the beam.
– There were people here who knew what they were doing. I wanted to go out and search myself, but was told to stay home in case Okie showed up. I turned off the neighbor’s brazier, chairs and leather traps, and people stood watch there all night, Geir says.
He himself sat in the living room and looked at the empty cage. He couldn’t sleep.
Wednesday came and went, Thursday the same. On Friday, the family gathered at Geir and at his wife’s home. Then a man called. “I’m standing by the mailbox,” he said to Geir, who left.
– Then I saw a little muzzle sticking out from inside his jacket. Then there was applause and crying.
Okie was found just 150 yards from his home. The man had heard a wailing sound and under some lumber in a lumber camp he had found the lost puppy.
He has now been to the vet and everything is fine with the crab.
– It’s amazing that he succeeded. Since then he’s mostly been lying on my chest, warming up.
The leader of the search, Karoline Kristofferesen, will now try to find out how Okie survived.
– Here it was between minus 20 and 30. If he had been out all the time, he would have frozen to death. It’s not possible to be as good as he was if he’d been out, Kristoffersen tells VG.
Geir and his family would like to thank the many people who were involved in the research.
– I have not experienced the support and help of my husband. It’s absolutely amazing. But this is a special little crab, says Geir Nilsen.
Rita Marie Kristiansen has not met her husband, she says.
– I’ve had over 200 conversations with people I’ve never spoken to before. One of them was a woman who lived in France. She was crying and wondering if I could tell her how Okie is. It is full of messages.
– I really gained faith in humanity after this. Okie will probably be happy with the attention she’s getting this Christmas.
