Rangers at a national park in Poland had to help an unusual hiker this weekend, after discovering an elderly dog walking alone in the mountains.
On Saturday, the Tatra National Park, located in the mountains along Poland’s southern border with Slovakia, announced that they were “urgently seeking the owner of an elderly dog who went to Konracka Pass”.
They included an image of the large black dog and a request for its owner to call them. “Our forester is already bringing the dog safely,” added the park.
The Konracka Pass – known as Kondracka Przełęcz in Polish and Kondratovo sedlo in Slovakian – reaches a height of 1,725 metres (5,659 feet) above sea level as it runs between the mountain peaks of Kopa Kondracka (2,005 metres) and Giewont (1,895 metres).
The pass is a popular tourist trail through the Tatra mountains, which are themselves a major tourist destination. It is not known where the dog came from, but the nearest large town is Zakopane, located some two and a half hours walk (for humans) away.
The Konracka Pass Kondracka Przełęcz) can be seen on the far left of the photo (credit: Jerzy Opioła/Wikimedia Commons, under CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story, however, had a happy ending when, seven hours after originally launching the search for the dog’s owner, the national park announced that he had been found.
“The dog was safely brought down from the pass, the owner came for him, he is already at his home,” wrote the park on social media. “We thank all those involved for their help.”
Beneath their post, the dog’s owner posted an image of the rather tired-looking dog back at home, revealing that he had run away from home the previous day and thanking all those who had helped search for him.
The dog had climbed the mountains because he was “most likely following tourists”, said the owner, though Polsat, a leading television station, suggested that perhaps “he was seeking adventure in his old age”.
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: Tatrzański Park Narodowy/Facebook
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
