A dog lost for 70 days in Alaska bear country is home — and she walked into the trap set for her at 9:30 p.m. on 4 November, exactly two years to the day, and to the hour her owner says, after her grandmother died.
Bella Rose, an XL chocolate-and-tan American Bully, slipped her leash on 26 August 2026 outside the Twin Cities Veterinary Clinic in Soldotna, Alaska. Her owner’s brother, who had a broken arm, let go rather than risk re-injuring it, and Bella Rose bolted across Kalifornsky Beach Road at rush hour and into woods where bears roam. Her owner, Rufus Arroyo, a 20-year Soldotna resident, searched for 70 days.
A trap built for one dog
Arroyo searched with help from Kenai Peninsula Animal Lovers, known as KPAL and led by Kelly Griebel, and Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Peter Micciche, who arranged overnight access to the Soldotna Landfill, where Bella Rose had been spotted. Arroyo built a custom four-by-eight-foot pen with a pressure-plate trigger and put her blanket inside.
At about 9:30 p.m. on 4 November, Bella Rose stepped in, pawed at the blanket, and the door shut. She was home. Arroyo said the moment came exactly two years to the day — and, he said, to the hour — after her grandmother, a dog named Athena Rose, died at 9:30 p.m. on 4 November 2024. That coincidence is Arroyo’s own account, reported as such.
Seventy days in bear country
Seventy days is a long time for any dog to survive on its own, and longer still in country where bears roam. Bella Rose had been living around the landfill area, where sightings kept the search going long after most lost-dog searches would have gone cold. The pen, the blanket and the pressure plate did what shouting and searching could not: they gave her a reason to walk in on her own.
She is now home and recovering. For Arroyo, the reunion closes a search that ran from late August into November, through a whole Alaskan autumn, and ended at the exact hour he associates with another dog he loved. The trap worked. The blanket worked. And after 70 days, Bella Rose is where she belongs.
