A dog fled fire by swimming to an uninhabited island. Then the search began.

TYBEE ISLAND ― No one knows why Walker swam away from the fire to an uninhabited island.

His home is — was — more than three blocks from the wide creek that runs along the backside of this seaside summer retreat near Savannah. The waterway itself is wide and a tempest of unforgiving currents and rips, the kind where you check the tide chart before going out in it on a boat, let alone for a swim.

Yet as the flames consumed the duplex at 14th Street and Jones on a sunny Sunday afternoon earlier this month, and seemingly half the island showed up to console and help the residents, Walker disappeared.

The explanation from his family, Bruce and Heike Simpson, is that the commotion spooked Walker. He is a 2-year-old dog weighing 53 pounds and not keen on strangers. He’s content watching TV with the Simpsons and the family’s other dog, Penny, in the Simpsons’ duplex, as he was doing when the fire broke out in the unit next door, but skittish outside his comfort zone.

“That dog never goes out of the house — he hates being out,” Heike Simpson said.

Walker, a 2-year-old hound, relaxing at home in a photo taken before Bruce and Heike Simpson's Tybee Island house was destroyed by fire on June 7. Walker fled and took refuge on an uninhabited island nearby. (Photo courtesy of Jenny Rutherford)

So he ran away. And when he didn’t come back after a few hours, the search began. A resident spotted the hound in the water of the creek and then in the marsh on the far side, at a place called Little Tybee.

The state-owned nature preserve is a vast collection of small islands, hammocks and thick marshes. It’s uninhabited but sees a fair amount of visits from kayakers, paddleboarders and shallow-bottomed motorboats. The state allows overnight camping there even.

Even so, it’s not hospitable. There’s no water to drink. The landscape changes with the area’s extreme eight-foot tides, making areas accessible only during certain hours — and even then the terrain is challenging, littered with sharp oyster shells and prickly thorns and briars.

Then there’s the island’s wildlife. Shorebirds and turtles ignore human presence. Mosquitoes, gnats and snakes tend to be more territorial.

For six days, Walker lived among those beasts, too.

Rescuers staged at the Alley 3 beach on Tybee Island to search for Walker, a 2-year-old hound that fled a house fire on June 7. He swam across Tybee Creek to Little Tybee Island on the other side. (Photo courtesy of Jenny Rutherford)

Organizing a search and rescue

While Walker hid out on Little Tybee, the Simpsons and close friend Jenny Rutherford, a local real estate broker, organized a search party.

The first rescue flotilla, just two boats strong, crossed the creek to Little Tybee the evening of his disappearance. The social media summons read searchers must “not be afraid of dogs who may be aggressive” and that Walker, if located, may “need to be sedated by dart.”

A Tybee Island Police drone spotted him two days after the fire, and the search intensified. Animal control professionals joined in, as did members of TRAPS, a Savannah volunteer group that specializes in finding lost pets. They placed traps, along with bowls of food and water, above the high tide line at several locations.

But Walker didn’t show. The drone operators didn’t locate him again until two days later, four days after the fire. Nightfall limited that search.

The experts were set to give up. Animal control told Rutherford they wouldn’t return the next day, and TRAPS texted her to say they’d pause their efforts.

The next morning, though, a new volunteer joined the search. Jon Dedic reached out to Rutherford and told her he was a skilled kayaker familiar with Little Tybee’s many hidden nooks and crannies and would like to help.

She was dubious even offering to ferry his kayak across Tybee Creek to save him paddling across the tidal waterway.

“I’ve done 60 miles in a day and this island is a mile away,” said Dedic, who goes by the pseudonym Team Moonbird. “They were like ‘There’s cactus and snakes over there’ and I was like ‘That’s not really a problem.’ I explore these islands just for fun. I can find a dog.”

At 5:15 p.m. on Friday, June 12, Dedic pushed his kayak into the creek and paddled toward a remote hammock where a drone operator had spotted Walker that morning. Dedic beached the boat near the spot to search on foot. As he walked along the centerline of the narrow spit of land, he heard rustling in nearby bushes. He stopped, squatted on his haunches and waited.

Walker poked his head out.

Dedic approached slowly, using baby talk to keep Walker calm. The dog backed toward the water’s edge, even putting his hind legs in the surf while his front legs stood on the roots of a cypress tree. Walker appeared exhausted after six days without food or water, his ribs showing, Dedic said. The dog let Dedic come closer, a foot at a time, until Dedic looped a rope around Walker’s neck.

Then Dedic called for help on a radio. He dropped a pin on a cellphone map and sent it and also forwarded GPS coordinates. In the meantime, he fashioned a makeshift pen of sticks and brush for Walker, who was busy chewing through Dedic’s rope leash.

Twenty minutes later, Bryan Donaldson pulled up to the hammock in his shallow-bottomed jon boat. He had a dog crate that Walker wanted no part of. Walker snapped his jaws at Donaldson and Dedic as they attempted to prod him into the open door.

Eventually, man bested beast with a bowl of freshwater and dull-ended sticks. Dedic poked and steered Walker toward the crate. Donaldson got close enough to slip a new leash on Walker, and as the dog put his paws and nose into the crate for a drink, they gave him one solid push.

Rescue accomplished.

A rescue crew carries Walker in a dog crate from where he was found on Little Tybee Island. The 2-year-old hound spent six days on the uninhabited island after fleeing a house fire. (Photo courtesy of Bryan Donaldson)

A heartwarming reunion

Rutherford tried to call the Simpsons to share the news, but they were attending a fundraiser at a local eatery and didn’t hear the phone ring. Island residents had packed the place for the event in support of the Simpsons and the other family impacted by the fire, the Gulbrunsons. Sadly, the Gulbrunsons lost their family dog in the blaze.

Rutherford eventually reached Heike Simpson by calling someone else at the party who did hear the phone. She sent a car to pick Heike up so she could be at the beach when Donaldson arrived with Walker.

The crate was brought ashore and the door opened, but Walker didn’t come out — until Heike bent down and called to him. The dog went from exhausted and terrified to “acting like a puppy again,” Rutherford said.

“I was so elated,” Heike Simpson said. “The whole deal was full of highs and lows. Low: the house fire. High: He escaped. Low: He’s didn’t come back and we can’t find him. High: the rescue. It was a roller coaster that lasted for six days.”

Walker (left) lies on a sofa after being rescued and reunited with Penny, the Simpsons' other dog. (Photo courtesy of Jenny Rutherford)

The Tybee community has been celebrating Walker since his return. Islanders followed and commented on Rutherford’s social media posts throughout the ordeal. Several dozen volunteered during the search and hundreds have rallied behind the Simpsons and the Gulbrunsons, who are in temporary housing.

The volunteers have dubbed themselves Walker Tybee Rangers.