Photo: Matthias Tschumi
When a 10-year-old girl went missing during a snowstorm, people feared the worst. But miraculously, the girl was found alive after surviving 18 hours overnight in a freezing blizzard in Russia. The only way she made it through the night was with the help of a furry friend—a stray dog.
The girl (who was not named by authorities) went missing from school in Uglegorsk, Russia, and was essentially trapped during the icy snowstorm. To keep warm, she “hugged a fluffy dog” that provided her a way to stay alive until a team of authorities and volunteers could rescue her to safety. The dog was a true savior—the blizzard caused up to two feet of snowdrifts and poor visibility, making it even harder to find her.
The breakthrough in the case came after a tip from someone who remembered seeing a girl playing with a dog near a shelter. And, that’s where they found her; she was dressed in her cold-weather gear, embracing the pup as they both sat on a mattress.
“The fact that the girl remained alive in such weather really is a miracle,” volunteer searcher Anatoly Ivanov, shared with Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. “We were looking all night, nothing was visible at all, our hands in mittens were so cold, it was difficult to straighten our fingers. By morning, we started to think she would not be found alive. How can you survive such a nightmare outside?”
After being found, the girl was taken to the hospital but able to go home that same day.
h/t: [USA Today]
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