He traveled across America to return to his family that lost him.
Last month, a dog made headlines for making a 20-mile trek back to her family. And while she was a Very Good Dog, that journey can’t compare with a famous incident from the 1920s.
In August of 1923, the Brazier family were visiting relatives in Wolcott, Indiana, from their home in Silverton, Oregon. They took their Scotch Collie/English Shepherd mix, Bobbie, with them on their vacation. But tragedy struck when Bobbie was attacked by three other dogs in Indiana, and fled.
The family, Frank and Elizabeth Brazier and their daughters Leona and Nova, searched everywhere for their dog, but couldn’t find him. Distraught, the Braziers were forced to return to Oregon without their pet.
Six months later, in February of 1924, a dog walked into Silverton. He was dirty, his fur was matted and his nails were worn down to nothing. It was Bobbie.
The Oregon Humane Society launched an investigation and discovered that Bobbie had, in fact, walked at least 2,551 miles back to his family, crossing deserts, swimming across rivers and walking across half of America in the middle of winter. Bobbie became known as Bobbie the Wonder Dog and made headlines across the country.
Bobbie has been featured in “Ripley’s Believe It or Not,” the 1966 book Bobbie, a Great Collie by Charles Alexander, and the dog played himself in the silent film The Call of the West.
When Bobbie died in 1927, he was buried with honors at the Oregon Humane Society’s pet cemetery in Portland, with Hollywood superstar German shepherd Rin Tin Tin laying a wreath at his grave. He is remembered as one of the original Very, Very Good Boys of history.