Thor The Dog Survived Texas Flood, 2,000-Mile Trip To California — No One Knows How

When Thor the dog was found wandering around California, not far from the Oregon border, he was a bit underweight and plagued with fleas. But the sweet, strong, and friendly dog was healthy — and he had a story to tell.

The 16-month-old pooch had somehow found his way to California from Texas — a journey of more than 2,000 miles — after the state’s early-summer flood, when flood waters washed away the fence in Thor’s backyard, the Del Norte Triplicate reported.

Over several months, the dog somehow made it to California from Texas, much to the chagrin of the blue-nosed pit bull’s owner, Eddie Hurtado. When the Blanco River swelled and the flood water rushed through the college down of San Marcos, Texas, the family was forced to evacuate.

Dog that went missing during severe Texas floods has been found alive – in California. https://t.co/gvs66PwfjD pic.twitter.com/ghhMbXtKo0

— NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt (@NBCNightlyNews) November 2, 2015

And they had to leave their three dogs in the backyard on high ground. Eddie said he had no idea the flood would be so bad — when they got home, the dogs were all gone. One has since been recovered, one is still missing, but Thor turned up in California.

Hurtado was thrilled with the news. But no one knows how the dog made it from Texas to California after the flood.

According to the Los Angeles Times, a witness saw the pit bull hop out the back of a pickup truck at the end of September. He was found shortly after wandering around Crescent City and picked up by local animal control. They believe someone may have drove him at least part of the way, NBC News added. Eddie was perplexed.

“I don’t know how he ended up over there. The only thing that I can think of is that maybe one of the (Texas State) college students was studying out there, and maybe after the flood one of them found him and took him back. Unless somebody was traveling and picked him up.”

At the animal shelter, he was found to be in good shape. He’d lost some fur, was a bit underweight, and had some fleas, but he was washed and given double portions of meals and was soon back to his old self. Staff there also found that he was micro-chipped and figured out how far he’d traveled.

Animal shelter director Justin Riggs said that it’s quite rare to find a dog more than a couple miles from home. Luckily, when Hurtado got Thor in June last year and then got all his shots, he had the dog outfitted with a micro-chip. “I figured if he got lost they would be able to find him,” he noted.

But never in his wildest dreams did he imagine a flood would send his dog on a cross-country adventure from Texas to California. That trip created a new problem, once Eddie knew where Thor had gone — he had to get him home.

And the bill was steep, about $1,500 and far more than Eddie — who lives paycheck to paycheck — could afford. Though the shelter generally adopts out a dog after he’s been there for five days, they agreed to keep Thor safe and fed while his owner raised the money to bring him home to Texas.

The Times reported that Eddie had raised enough money to pay a long-haul truck driver to take Thor from California back home, but NBC News noted that the driver had volunteered.

Either way, a month after he showed up, he left Crescent City. Along the way, the driver took pictures of him chewing a bone and just relaxing during the trip. And on Monday, Thor crossed the border in his home state.

[Photos Via YouTube Screengrab]