Dog owner Ed Davis has given up hopes of finding his missing 11-year-old blind female Labrador, Madera, which left their home in Ester, Alaska, on February 6 at the height of a cold snap.

That day, the temperature was minus 40 degrees.  

It was Davis's wife who was watching Madera that day because Davis was working on the trans-Alaska pipeline at that time.

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The dog usually returns to the house after answering the call of nature, but during that day, when it was very cold, Madera opted to wander around. The dog went missing for weeks.

"My best hope was to walk into those trails and look for a track that might be hers ... My best hope was to find a frozen dog," National Post quotes Davis.

Fortunately for the wayward dog, which is blind due to an autoimmune disease, a man who rode a bike and was accompanied by a bell-wearing dog found Madera last week in the woods, about half a mile from where Davis lives.

When Madera heard the bell of the other dog, she whined.

That whine led to the discovery of Madera, which was hiding under a tree, according to the New York Daily News.

Despite the two weeks that she was gone, Madera was still healthy, although she lost 14 pounds.

Davis offered to Constantin Khrulev, who found Madera, a US$100 reward, which the man asked to be donated instead to the Fairbanks Animal Shelter Fund.

Impressed by Khrulev's gesture, Davis raised the donation to US$250.

Fairbanks, it seems, has its fair share of lost dogs reunited with their owners other than the story of Madera and Davis.

In 2012, Abby, another blind dog, walked over 10 miles from her home in the Two River vicinity until the 8-year-old pooch was rescued.

TagsDog, winter