A group of seven dogs in China has gone viral after footage showed them walking over 17 km back to their village, eventually reuniting with owners who had been searching for days.
The clip, first shared online on March 15, captures the dogs – a mix that includes a Labrador, golden retriever, Pekingese, and German shepherd – walking along a highway in Changchun, where nighttime temperatures can fall below freezing.
Leading the group was a corgi later identified as Dapang, which translates to “big fatty” in Chinese.
The video quickly spread across social media, racking up more than 230 million views.
Tong Tong, a volunteer with a local stray dog rescue, said they had been putting up missing posters and checking nearby villages; the cold weather made the situation especially worrying.
By the morning of March 18, snowfall had started, which only made her worry more. she feared the dogs hadn’t had anything to eat or drink.
Determined to find them, she later borrowed a drone to help with the search.
Not long after, reports confirmed that the dogs had managed to find their way home on their own.
Three of the dogs, including Dapang the corgi, belong to a woman living in a nearby village.
She told local media she had spent four days searching and was close to giving up; then on March 18, Dapang suddenly showed up back at her home.
After that, she went around nearby villages and located the remaining dogs, which had been taken in by local residents.
It’s still not fully known why the dogs disappeared in the first place. Some people online speculated they may have been taken for the dog meat trade, which is a delicacy in certain parts of China.
On March 21, Jilin’s provincial culture and tourism bureau said the dogs likely followed their own instincts, drawn by a German shepherd that was in heat and known to roam for days at a time.
The story also sparked some lighthearted reactions online, with people joking it felt like something out of a movie. Others compared it to a real-life version of Paw Patrol, the popular children’s cartoon about a boy and his team of rescue dogs.
