Puppy Found Alive on San Clemente Island 5 Weeks After Going Overboard at Sea

By MIRNA ALFONSO (Patch Staff)

CORONADO, CA - Am 18-month-old, blue-eyed German shepherd-husky mix arrived at Coronado Island this week after being found by Navy personnel on San Clemente Island.

The pup, Luna, had survived living on the island for five weeks, after going overboard while she and her owner Nick Hayworth, were on a fishing trip.

On Wednesday, she was brought to Coronado by Navy personnel and handed over to Hayworth's buddy because the owner was out of town.

Luna went missing Feb. 10, as Hayworth was pulling out traps - he was fishing for lobster and some kind of fish.

"One minute Luna was there, the next minute Luna was gone," said Sandy DeMunnik, Naval Base Coronado Public Affairs.

Hayworth sent a distress call to San Clemente Island, where he believed Luna might turn up, DeMunnik told Patch.

Hayworth searched the water and Navy personnel searched the island, where no pets are kept; Hayworth stayed in the area for two days, looking for his dog.

After a week of searching, the Navy called off its hunt for Luna and business went on as usual, said DeMunnik, which includes bombing practice on the island.

"Five weeks later, after weeks of bombing and two El Nino storms," said DeMunnik, some sailors "saw a German Shepherd puppy sitting on the side of the road ... wagging her tail.

"She hopped into the truck ... gave everybody a kiss," DeMunnik told Patch in a phone interview.

A wildlife biologist on the island checked her over and though underweight, Luna was otherwise in perfect health.

"No burrs in her fur, no cactus injuries, no torn paws," said DeMunnik, adding that it was just short of a miracle because the island is craggy and there is live mortar all over the place.

Having checked her scat, vets determined she had been living on rodents -- primarily mice -- and "dead fish that had washed up on the shore," De Munnik said.

The El Nino storms actually kept Luna in fresh water; the Navy catches storm water, DeMunnik said.

Her owner, an SDSU student on break and currently working out of state, was reportedly ecstatic that Luna turned up, having posted an R.I.P. notice on a social media page.

Navy personnel noticed that Luna lost her collar and replaced it with a "military dog tag," said DeMunnik.

The tag has four lines:

• Luna
• Keep The Faith
• 10 Feb - 15 March
• San Clemente Island

The "Keep The Faith" line comes from the motto of the Navy's Search Evasion Rescue Escape (SERE) school, where service personnel are trained in case they are ever caught and made prisoners of war, DeMunnik said.

She was lost Feb. 10 and found March 15.

The sailors were happy to make her an honorary military dog, said DeMunnik.

“For a puppy to survive five weeks in such treacherous terrain … she’s a survivor.”

Photos, video courtesy of the U.S. Navy