SOLDOTNA, Alaska: A dog named Bella Rose is home in Soldotna after 70 days lost in woods where bears roam, after she stepped into a pen built for her at the local landfill on the night of November 4 and the door closed behind her, according to KTUU, Alaska’s News Source.
Bella Rose is an extra large American Bully with chocolate and tan coloring. She slipped her leash on August 26 outside Twin Cities Veterinary Clinic in Soldotna. The brother of her owner, Rufus Arroyo, had taken her to the clinic to get her shot records before her second birthday, and he was working with a broken arm that day. Once free, she ran across busy Kalifornsky Beach Road and into the woods. She was still wearing a purple buckle collar, an orange training collar and a gray leash when she vanished.
Arroyo is a Soldotna resident of 20 years who works on call at Central Peninsula Hospital. He searched for 70 days, in country where a loose dog faces traffic, weather and wild animals. He told KTUU that the search felt like a parent looking for a child. For him, it was a daily effort to bring a member of his family home, fitted around his shifts at the hospital.
He did not search alone. Kenai Peninsula Animal Lovers, a local animal group known as KPAL and led by realtor Kelly Griebel, lent traps and helped with the effort. Then a tip came in that changed the search. A dog dragging a leash had been seen at the Soldotna Landfill, a few miles from where Bella Rose was lost. The gray leash she had worn since August made the report stand out, and the landfill became the center of the final effort.
Landfill staff allowed traps to be set on the property, and worker James Van Bruggen offered to stay late to help. Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Peter Micciche gave Arroyo permission to stay on landfill property overnight, so the watch did not have to end when the site closed. Arroyo built a pen that measured 4 feet by 8 feet, fitted with a pressure plate trigger. When an animal steps on the plate, the door is released and closes. Inside the pen he put Bella Rose’s own blanket, carrying a smell she knew from home.
At about 9:30 p.m. on November 4, the long search ended in a few quiet seconds. Bella Rose stepped into the pen, pawed at her blanket, and the door shut behind her. She was caught safely, 70 days after she ran. Arroyo also noted a detail that gave the night a deeper meaning for his family. She was found exactly two years to the day and to the hour after her grandmother, a dog named Athena Rose, had died. For the family, that timing tied the homecoming to the memory of the older dog.
Bella Rose is now home recovering, according to KTUU. After 70 days outside, recovery is the next task, and it is a far better one than searching. Her story is also a picture of how a small community solves a hard problem together. Volunteers, landfill workers, a borough mayor and one owner who refused to stop turned a single tip into a safe capture. In bear country, in the dark, a familiar blanket in a simple pen gave a lost dog a reason to step inside and stay.
Sources: KTUU, Alaska’s News Source, reporting on the search for Bella Rose and her reunion on November 4.
