Since Belka’s owner drowned while crossing a frozen river on his bike, the dog has spent days in the spot where he fell, hoping that he would return – but sadly, he died
Devoted dog spends days at spot where owner died
A devoted dog has spent days at the spot where his owner tragically died while crossing a frozen river on his bike – and has refused to leave.
Heartbreaking pictures show Belka stoically waiting for her owner to come back. After four days searching on the Ufa River in Russia, her owner’s body was found today downstream of the place he was lost. But despite this, the dog refuses to give up hope.
The dead man’s family took Belka home several times, but she repeatedly returned to the spot she saw him fall through the ice – three quarters of an inch thick – in the Bashkiria region, also known as Bashkortostan, say reports. The owner had taken a short-cut across the frozen river – but the ice was not yet thick enough to hold him and he tragically died.
A man went to attempt to rescue her 59-year-old owner, and got into trouble doing so. He was swept downstream under the ice on the fast-flowing river. The rescuer was saved suffering from frostbite – but tragically the owner, not named, fell beneath the ice in water 23ft deep.
His bicycle was retrieved, but took four days – including the use of a hovercraft – to find his body. Kirill Pervov, head of the rescue service in Bashkiria, said: “During the search, the rescue team used an air cushion boat with a hooking device to survey the river bottom.”
This located the man’s bicycle but it took much longer to find the missing dog owner. “Search work was complicated by difficult conditions – a strong current and unstable ice crust,” he said.
He urged locals to “follow the rules of safe behaviour and do not put your life in danger. Do not go out on thin ice.”
Belka shares the name of one of the famous Soviet space dogs sent into orbit aboard Sputnik 5 spacecraft in 1960. But Russians are comparing the loyal pet to the famous Japanese Akita dog Hachikō, a pet who waited endlessly for his master, Hidesaburō Ueno, a professor at the University of Tokyo, who had died.
In 2022, a loyal pooch refused to leave his owner’s tomb for a month in the city of Zigong, Sichuan province, China except to forage for food and water. Heartbreaking footage was shared online and made animal lovers across the world shed tears.
