Talk about the feel good story of the year.  A dog that fell overboard in rough seas off the coast of Australia was reunited with its owners after surviving for four months on a remote island.  The family, which lost the dog when their boat sailed through choppy waters, was devastated until learning that the dog was alive and well.

The family originally thought the dog, named Sophie Tucker, drowned.  However, Sophie Tucker doggie-paddled to a nearby island called St Bees, which was five nautical miles away.  Thus began Sophie Tucker’s four-month survival adventure.

St Bees Island, which is largely uninhabited, is full of feral goats.  Sophie Tucker had apparently been feeding off of baby goats, as local rangers who found Sophie Tucker had noticed baby goat carcasses.

Jan Griffith, Sophie Tucker’s owner, said that they had contacted island rangers who had found a lost dog.  When the ranger’s boat brought Sophie Tucker to shore, Griffith knew they had found their dog.  “We called the dog and she started whimpering and banging the cage and they let her out and she just about flattened us,” said Griffith.  “She wriggled around like a mad thing.”