‘It really is a miracle’: Dog lost during camping trip found by good Samaritan pilot

SOLDOTNA, Alaska (KTUU/Gray News) - A lost dog was reunited with his owners this week after being found by a pilot in a rural part of Southcentral Alaska.

Koda, a 10-year-old chocolate lab from Soldotna, went missing during a Fourth of July camping trip near Carmen Lake.

During the trip, his owners, Lewis and Amber Ekle, said Koda got spooked, slipped out of his collar, and ran off.

“We tried to grab his collar,” Lewis said. “He grabbed his frisbee and we told ourselves, if he hadn’t grabbed his frisbee, he would have come back. But he grabbed his frisbee and said, ‘No, I’m out.’”

For nine days, there was no sight of Koda.

During that time, Lewis and Amber spent hours boating and hiking miles in every direction, looking for their dog. Strangers and loved ones also helped them attempt to find Koda.

“That terrain is just crazy back there … I know what we went through: hiking through it, cutting trees down and searching areas, and calling for him. I can only imagine if he could tell us what he went through,” Lewis said.

The couple turned to social media, posting a call for help on numerous Facebook pages. Amber told Alaska’s News Source that some of their posts got thousands of shares, and with it, the messages started coming in.

“People were constantly messaging me, saying, ‘Where was he lost at? I want to go help,’ and the biggest problem was there was no way to get to where he was lost at unless you owned a boat or he could go out there by plane and pack a raft down to the area,” Amber said.

It was on the Facebook page “Alaska Packrafting” that Anchorage resident John Kagerer heard about Koda.

“I was thinking, wow, that’s a huge area,” Kagerer said. “Then, as time went by, I kept thinking, wow, I should just go down, and I might be able to get that dog.”

Kagerer told KTUU that he felt a calling — that he couldn’t pinpoint why — to go searching for the dog.

On Sunday, Kagerer flew upriver to Carmen Lake to see if he could spot Koda.

“I just had a real feeling. I don’t know, a gut feeling that I was going to find the dog,” Kagerer said.

That gut feeling turned out to be true. Kagerer says that during part of his journey, he landed his plane about a mile and a half upriver from where Koda was missing.

Within minutes of getting his plane tied down, Koda appeared.

“Here comes the dog out of the alders over to me, you know. But it wouldn’t get any closer than about 10 feet to me,” Kagerer said. “[I] had some milk bones in the airplane. So, I went and got one of those. And when I showed it to the dog, Koda, he got pretty excited... I’d break off a bit of the milk bone and kind of tossed it to him, and they got a little closer.”

After luring the dog in, Kagerer was able to tie a rope around the dog and return him to his plane. The two of them flew back to Anchorage, where Koda reunited with his owners.

“That sucker punch in our stomachs for nine days and afterwards, it was just like this huge weight lifted off your shoulder. It’s just amazing to have him back home,” Amber said. “It really is a miracle...I can only imagine if he could tell us what he went through,” Lewis said.

Koda is now back home, where Lewis and Amber said he is recovering. The couple said he had scratched his nose and eyes and had sore paws, in addition to having lost weight. However, that has not stopped him from wanting to play and share many cuddle sessions with his family.