The story of a French man who lost his dog in Greece and found her a year later in Serbia could make a heartwarming Hollywood Sunday movie for all the family.
Remy Dargere traveled from France to Greece crossing the Balkans on his bicycle accompanied by his one-year-old dog Raika, that was placed in a specially-designed trailer.
On April 7, 2023, while he was in Kipoi of Evros, only 200 meters from the border with Turkey, two big dogs attacked Raika and she ran away, never to be found again. Dargere went through great efforts to find her, calling on all Greek authorities and locals, but to no avail.
The Lost Dog Found a Year Later
If animals could talk, Raika would recount the fascinating story of her survival for a whole year on her own and how she finally returned to her loving owner. How she traversed hundreds of miles across the Balkans in her attempt to return home, to Lyon, France.
Finally, the brave little dog was found in Serbia, close to the Bosnia-Herzegovina border, about 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) away from where she had been lost, in Kipoi. Luckily, she was found by animal lovers.
Specifically, she was found by members of an animal welfare organization who took her to a veterinary clinic to be examined and identified her guardian from her chip.
Lost Dog Search Chronicle
The distraught owner stayed for about a month in Alexandroupolis, searching for his lost dog with the help of volunteers. One of them, Dora Kyriakidou, was by his side from the start, tirelessly searching for Raika with him.
“We printed posters of Raika and recorded Remi’s whistle and bike horn that she responded to so we could call her. We “combed” a large area looking for her, without losing hope that we will eventually find her, despite our fear that if she went to mountainous areas, she would be at risk of wolf attacks,” Kyriakidou told the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (AMNA).
After a month of fruitless efforts, Dargere was forced to return to France without Raika.
Serbia Notifies Greece
After Raika was found, she was hosted by the animal welfare organization Hope for Dogs, Europe, which posted a photo of her in the attempt to have her adopted. They had named her “Marley” and wrote about her playful character.
When they took the lost dog to the veterinarian clinic to be examined, they found her chip with the details of the owner. Natassa Bombolaki, president of Nemesis, the Panhellenic Federation for the Environment, Animals and Hunting made public the news of the finding of Raika.
“When they found through the chip Remy Dargere’s details and contacted him by phone, he went crazy! From what he told me, he will go next Friday or Saturday to pick her up” Kyriakidou said, adding that she thinks that Raika had decided to go back to Lyon by herself. After all, her owner never lost hope that he will find his beloved dog again, since, as he wrote on his Facebook page, “Faith can move mountains!”