Dog Overboard Found Five Weeks Later

The one-year-old German Shepherd, Luna, that fell overboard from a fishing vessel on February 10 has been found alive.

Luna was reported missing about two miles off of San Clemente Island, California, by her owner, Nick Hayworth. The dog had disappeared while he was pulling up lobster pots and could not be seen in the dark.

Luna is a powerful swimmer, and Hayworth thought she would swim for shore, but after several days of searching, he presumed she was dead.

U.S Navy personnel found Luna alive on an island 80 miles off the coast of San Diego, California, this week.

On Tuesday morning, navy personnel at the Naval Auxiliary Landing Field San Clemente Island found her sitting on the side of the road wagging her tail.

A wildlife biologist for the San Diego Zoo has examined Luna and found her in perfect health other than being a little undernourished. She is thought to have survived on rodents and dead fish for the weeks she was missing.

On Wednesday afternoon, Luna was flown to a Navy base on the mainland and handed over to Haworth's best friend, who will care for the dog until her owner returns Thursday night.

Luna, meanwhile, has a souvenir of the experience. Her dog tag was lost but the Navy gave her a new one. Along with her name, it bears a lesson from the Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) course taught on the island to Navy personnel: "Keep the Faith."