A loyal dog has been seen staying put at the spot she saw her bicycling owner fall through the ice of a frozen river.
Heartbreaking pictures show Belka stoically waiting for her owner, who tragically drowned after falling through the ice of a frozen river while he tried taking a shortcut.
After four days searching on the Ufa River in Russia, the body of her tragic drowned owner was found today downstream of the place he was lost.
The dead man’s family several times took Belka home, but she repeatedly returned to the spot she saw him fall through the ice – three quarters of an inch thick – in the Bashkiria region.
The owner had taken a short cut across the frozen river but the ice was not quite thick enough to hold him.
A man went to attempt to rescue her 59 year old owner, and got into trouble doing so.
He was swept downstream under the ice on the fast-flowing river, though was saved
Tragically the owner, who has not been named, fell beneath the ice in water 23ft deep.
Belka (pictured) was seen stoically waiting for her owner, who tragically drowned after falling through the ice of a frozen river while he tried taking a shortcut
The dead man’s family several times took Belka home, but she repeatedly returned to the spot she saw him fall through the ice
Belka stood day and night at the spot her owner fell into the ice
While his bicycle was retrieved, it took four days – including the use of a hovercraft – to find Bella’s owner.
Kirill Pervov, head of the rescue service in Bashkiria, said: ‘During the search, the rescue team used an air cushion boat with a hooking device to survey the river bottom.
‘Search work was complicated by difficult conditions – a strong current and unstable ice crust,’ he said.
He urged locals to ‘follow the rules of safe behaviour and do not put your life in danger.
‘Do not go out on thin ice.’
Belka shares the name of one of the famous Soviet space dogs sent into orbit aboard Sputnik 5 spacecraft in 1960.
But Russians are comparing the loyal pet to the famous Japanese Akita dog Hachikō, a pet who waited endlessly for his master, Hidesaburō Ueno, a professor at the University of Tokyo, who had died.