500 KILOMETERS OF LOVE: DENA'S JOURNEY TO FIND HER FAMILY

From Petrinja to Ruma, the Radanović family was part of the refugee convoy.

During the "Operation Storm" in 1995, their house was destroyed, and columns of Serbian refugees from Croatia fled to Serbia. In the chaos, they left in an attempt to save their lives, but without Dena, the dog they had received from a neighbor in 1991.

- Dena was always cheerful, but 17 days before we left, when we received a letter from the Canadian embassy with travel details, she didn't move from the house. She knew we were preparing to go somewhere and kept an eye on us all the time, says Dušanka Radanović.

How Dena managed to find her way to Ruma and locate her masters and friends remains unknown.

She traveled through or near the towns of Dvor, Novi, Prijedor, Banja Luka, Prnjavor, Derventa, Modriča, Brčko, Bijeljina, Bogatić, and Sremska Mitrovica. Rivers such as the Una, Sana, Vrbas, Bosna, Drina, and Sava crossed her path.

The obstacles, it seems, were insignificant compared to the love that drove her forward to find her family.

After 139 days of wandering and covering 500 kilometers from Petrinja to Ruma, where the refugee camp was located, she found them. Just before New Year’s Eve 1996, on December 22, her son Goran ran into the room, extremely excited, and said, "Mom, Dena is here!" Dušanka recalls, adding that she couldn't recognize the dog at first because she had lost so much weight, and her paws were bloody and nail-less, but the white mark under her neck gave her away.

In Ruma, Dena gave birth to five puppies. The puppies were given to the residents of Ruma, and she flew across the "big pond." In 1999, the Radanović family applied for resettlement to Canada, and the question of what to do with Dena immediately arose.

- The children clearly said they wouldn't go without her. I conveyed this to the officer at the Canadian embassy in Belgrade, who both surprised and delighted me with her response: 'We know everything about your dog, and we will do everything to ensure she travels with you, don't worry, recalls Milan Radanović.

Dena the dog became the most famous dog on the planet when, after "Operation Storm," she traveled 500 kilometers to find her owners in a refugee camp.

The news about Dena and her family quickly spread worldwide, with many comparing her to Lassie. However, the difference is that Dena managed to find her owners in a completely unknown place 500 kilometers away. This case remains unexplained even from an expert perspective, leading to the conclusion that it was more than just an ordinary animal instinct.

Source: Šajkača