The Guardian has the story of a 5 year old dog named Amber. Amber is a retriever mix who was wondering the streets of Qatar. She has been adopted and escaped numerous times. After being recaptured and spending another month in their local pound with no one else in Qatar willing to take her the shelter made the decision to ship her to the UK where a family had agreed to take her in.
Amber apparently not a fan of the UK escaped her first night there and appears to have known she was flown over an ocean and made the decision to try and swim back to Qatar. The flight to London had only taken 7 hours so perhaps she thought it would take a similar amount of time to swim back.2 problems it's actually 4,000 miles and she swam in the wrong direction.
She was found 36 days after going missing by a ferry crew who noticed her and pulled her to safety with one crew member jumping into the water to help her onboard. Crew mate Ethan Grant says he initially mistook her for a seal before realizing she was a dog in distress. They theorize that she had swam along the coast as there had been several witnesses in towns that said they had seen her. But she avoided capture and didn't even go for the food that some folks put out in hopes of catching her. She was too smart for that. She would rest up and jump back in the ocean and continue her journey back to Qatar. There were several sightings by people who live on Brownsea island about a mile off the coast of England.
Kelly Parker who has been working with Amber since she was about 6 months old says everyone involved with Amber has been frustrated by her "wild mindset" as she has never trusted any humans. The good news of this story seems to be not only Amber's incredible will to live but her adventure seems to have shaken her of her distrust of people. Amber has been back with her adoptive family in England and they say she is allowing them to pet her and has been spending evenings watching TV with he family n the couch.