It was a very happy dog owner who was reunited with his dogs after desperate search since they disappeared during a snowmobile ride on Christmas Eve.
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– I’m so happy now. We have not celebrated Christmas. We just have light and easy. These are our kids, these dogs.
This is what dog owner Rune Hansen says about the two bird dogs, mother and son Lilo and Crazy.
The happy reunion took place on Tuesday night. Then the two dogs had been out in the mountains in Rana municipality since Christmas Eve, where it has occasionally been over minus 20 degrees.
Days of exploration
The dogs disappeared from the snowmobile track on December 23 during a trip, probably because they had been hit by grouse. Despite a lot of searching, Rune did not find out which direction the dogs had taken the road.
Then followed days of exploration, with a dog community that volunteered as exploration crews and lots of contributions from people around the municipality. One of those who volunteered was a man Rune had never talked to before, but who wanted to contribute with his thermal binoculars.
He placed himself in an old hunting tower overlooking an area where they had received tips that two dogs had been observed.
Rune and several others entered the area and suddenly the Christmas miracle happened – two yellow eyes in the dark.
– I shout «Crazy, Crazy, can you come to he father». Then he came to put his head in my lap and we got a leash on him. Then I see two yellow eyes again, it was the mother. I shout «Lilo, Lilo». Then she comes too and puts her head in my lap. I cried so the tears rolled down, says the northerner (60).
–Collected 150,000 kroner
By then, the man with the thermal binoculars had already caught sight of them.
Before the dogs were found, the bird dog community had set up a splice, where they had received NOK 150,000 by Tuesday. Some of the money has gone to the search operation, but the rest of the funds the 60-year-old wonders whether to go to a fund for any new search operations for dogs that disappear from their owner.
One dog is Hansen’s daughter Annette Skogheim Hansen’s.
– I still do not understand that it is true, but I know that it is. Dad and some others went up in the area tonight and were able to report that the dogs have been found. Now I finally get some peace and quiet at Christmas, she says Rana Blad, who first mentioned the case.
Now the two dogs are tightly wrapped and sleep inside the cabin. The family has a third dog named Messi.
– He has hardly eaten in five days and has not slept either. He has been desperate to join. He has realized that something has been going on.
Now Rune has invited five friends to a party to celebrate and the menu includes tenderloin, beer and aquavit.
– It will be a huge party, he says.
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