00:00Four-year-old lost in the Siberian wilderness gets a miracle from an unlikely hero.
00:13Four-year-old Karina Chikotova lived in a remote Siberian village in the Far East region called
00:20the Sakha Republic. There, she shared a small home with her father, mother, grandmother,
00:26and her dog, Neda. Like most kids her age, Karina was energized by a youthful curiosity
00:32that urged to explore and know and understand, which is why in July 2014, she followed her father,
00:40Rodion, on an expedition into a part of the Siberian wilderness also known as the Tega.
00:46Now, this decision was problematic for a few different reasons. The first reason being that
00:52the Tega is very much an animal kingdom dominated by bears, tigers, and wolves with really sharp teeth
00:59and an appetite for people. The second problem with Karina's decision was that she had not told
01:05her grandmother, the person in charge with watching her at the time, that she would be following her
01:10dad into the bear-infested wilderness. In fact, she hadn't even told her dad that she would be
01:16following him. So literally, no one on the planet knew that this four-year-old girl was diving head
01:22strong into the most dangerous territory on the planet. No person, at least. Karina did have a
01:29companion at her side, Neda, the family dog. That, evidently, was all the comfort the little girl
01:36needed, but it was little comfort to her mother, Talena, when she realized the little girl and the
01:41dog were both missing. At first, Talena figured her youngster and the dog followed Rodion to his
01:48native village, but Siberia wasn't exactly flooded with quality LTE, so she couldn't pull out a cell
01:55phone and check. Instead, she waited to hear from her husband. In the meantime, Karina followed her
02:01father until somehow managed to lose his trail. Her dad disappeared from view, leaving her very much
02:07stranded in Siberia with Neda and the bears and the wolves. It took four days of waiting for mother
02:14Talena to learn that, no, her daughter was not with her husband in his home village. No stranger to
02:20Siberia, she understood this to be a very bad thing, so she alerted authorities. They deployed a 100-person
02:28rescue team to head out into the Siberian wilds to find her. The team carried rifles to fend off bears.
02:34Yeah, there were that many bears in the woods. Helicopters sliced the sky, and rescue workers on foot
02:42combed through the trees and tall grass, but their search proved fruitless. Karina was nowhere to be seen.
02:49But then, nine days after she went missing, authorities found a clue. More specifically, a clue walked right up
02:58to the authorities and introduced herself. Neda had returned to her home, but Karina was not with her.
03:05What should have been a hopeful moment only seemed to confirm Talena's worst thoughts.
03:11If she was to hug her puppy, Talena said, we thought this would have given her a chance to survive.
03:16So when her dog came back, we thought, that's it. Even if she was alive and chances were slim,
03:23now she would have definitely lost all hope. But Neda hadn't wandered absentmindedly home.
03:29She seemed eager to show the desperate family and the rescue crew something important. The dog
03:35headed the group of rescuers and led them into the wilderness. The dog led authorities to a spot in the
03:41wilderness, but none of them saw Karina there. Neda, it seemed, couldn't find the exact area where she'd
03:47left the little girl. Authorities wondered if they were anywhere near her at all. But three days later,
03:5412 days after Karina first went missing, rescue workers spotted a child-sized footprint on a riverbed
04:01beside a dog's paw print. The footprint revealed Karina was barefoot, a crucial detail for investigators.
04:08This told rescue workers that Karina likely was not in the woods. Too many sharp sticks there would
04:15have been a nightmare on her feet. This narrowed their search down considerably. And the following
04:20morning, they executed that new search plan. And sure enough, just 20 meters from where they started
04:26searching, one rescue worker noticed a peculiar lump tucked away in a patch of tall grass. The whole
04:33crew rushed over. They found her nestled in the grass. She was starving, thirsty, exhausted,
04:40and covered in mosquito bites, but nevertheless alive. They brought her tea before carrying her to a car
04:47and whisking her away to the nearest hospital. The child spent some time in the hospital, but physicians
04:53determined there wouldn't be any lasting damage. A psychologist examined her mental state and found,
04:59shockingly, her mind was in a good place. Talk about mental fortitude. So how did a four-year-old
05:05girl survive in the Siberian wilderness? The little girl told reporters and her family that she survived
05:12off wild berries and river water. Then, of course, there was Neda, the lovable canine that gave her
05:19warmth at night and companionship in the daytime. The two reunited for the first time back at home when
05:25the hospital released Karina. The meeting did not go as expected. When Karina first saw her dog,
05:32she looked her in the eyes and chided, Why did you leave me? Those three days of solitude must have
05:38really affected the little girl, but eventually she came to understand what the dog did for her.
05:44It was Neda who rescued me, Karina said some time later. I was really, really scared,
05:49but when we were going to sleep, I hugged her, and together we were warm. Karina's story gripped
05:55everyone watching, and locals even erected a statue of the girl and her pooch to celebrate their strength
06:01and will to survive. Not bad for a four-year-old and her dog, huh? In the end, Karina made
06:08a full
06:08recovery and by 2018 attended a ballet boarding school 350 miles away from the village she'd wandered
06:16away from all those years ago. Her teachers believed she had the talent to compete in Russia's
06:22competitive ballet scene. When she just started her classes, Karina was very reserved, a boarding
06:27school leader said. She's changed so much and become a lot more open, sociable, friendly,
06:33and independent. She's made many friends who love her a lot. But even as she danced like an expert
06:39and earned friends with her exuberant personality, she would never forget the friend that made it all
06:44possible. Neda, the loyal canine. It's crazy that a four-year-old girl could survive 12 days in Siberia.
06:52It's even crazier that a four-year-old girl could survive 12 days in Siberia.
