Joe Marter’s Dog Comes Home
Joe Marter’s Dog Comes Home
Is Lost in Butte and Finds His Way to Missoula By Instinct
Joe Merter had an interesting tale to tell yesterday about the ability of a dog to find its way home from a long distance, no matter in what manner it might have been taken away. Among Mr. Merter’s possessions is a little black dog which he has owned for a number of years and which he prizes most highly. The dog is not one of fine pedigree or sleek coat, but he is an interesting and intelligent animal and about his latest exploit there hangs a tale.
Tuesday evening Mr. Merter had occasion to visit Butte on a business errand and his little dog went along, too, riding in the baggage car with a string tied around his neck and anchored to a trunk. The man and the dog arrived in Butte between 5 and 6 o’clock in the morning and took in the town together, the dog following close to the heels of his master wherever he went. At about 5 o’clock in the evening Mr. Merter lost the pup. He hunted the town over and over for him and in addition had a majority of the policemen as well as his friends on the lookout for the animal. But he did not find him and he had given him up as lost for good by the time the train pulled out for Missoula.
But the dog was all right. He knew the way back to Missoula, even if he did not know the streets of Butte and, when Merter turned up missing, he nosed around town until he found a street leading to the depot. Then he took to the railroad track or else some cutoff which his instinct told him would lead homewards, and trotted on to Missoula. Nobody knows how he fared on his homeward trip; whether he swam the rapidly rising streams or whether he used the railroad bridges, but, anyway, the following morning, when Mr. Merter, Sr., opened up the house, the little dog was in front of the door, whining to be let in. As soon as he was admitted to the house he curled up at the foot of Joe’s bed and went into a comatose state for many hours. Merter, the elder, then went over town to see what time his son had returned, but could not find him. He knew the dog had accompanied him to Butte and was afraid for a time that something had happened to the younger man. However, Joe returned home Thursday night all O. K. and since that time has been marveling at the instinct displayed by the little dog who had succeeded in making a trip of 125 miles through a country which he had never traveled before, and made the trip in less than ten hours, too.
The above article appeared in The Daily Missoulian on May 21, 1904.
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