Some say cats have nine lives, but it turns out a Chihuahua mix named Chile has quite the survival story himself.
Chile went missing in Manhattan for 10 days after escaping his owner last month. He was discovered by a vigilant kayaker in the Hudson River, looking malnourished and covered in motor oil. Locals are dubbing this incident “Hudson’s second miracle.”
The 8-month-old pup is now back with his owners, 27-year-olds Gabby Porter and Gianni Calistro, in their Hudson Yards apartment.
“It’s a real miracle. He really fought to get home,” Porter shared with an air of disbelief.
The tale took a turn on June 11, when Porter and Chile were enjoying a playdate with a friend and her golden retriever. Chile, however, decided to make a break for it after a final lick goodbye and dashed straight into traffic.
“He was hit by a car,” Porter explained. “It scared him, and then he just took off.” A local outlet first reported the details of the incident.
Porter and her friends desperately chased after the small dog, but Chile was already long gone.
For the next four days, Porter spent over 10 hours trying to find him, even taking time off work to distribute “lost dog” posters around the West Side Highway.
“I was screaming his name in the streets—it was heartbreaking,” she recalled.
Despite the overwhelming sadness, leads started to trickle in. On the night of his disappearance, someone thought they spotted Chile at Pier 40.
Security footage did confirm a dog matching Chile’s description, but finding him proved to be elusive.
The following week was especially hard, compounded by prank calls from people claiming they’d hurt Chile or who mocked his name, which only deepened their despair.
“These calls were really distracting, almost cruel,” Calistro remarked. “Chile was the start of our family. We only had him for six months, but he’s already made such a difference in our lives.”
On June 21, a kayaker named Joseph Scalpetta contacted the couple after spotting Chile about 200 feet offshore, surrounded by debris. It felt almost too good to be true.
“At first, I thought it was just another joke until I saw a picture of him,” Porter said, still in disbelief.
Scalpetta described the scene: “I stopped when I saw something moving in a pile of garbage in the water. It was a dog, so I started shouting, ‘There’s a dog in the water!'”
He recognized Chile from the flyers plastered along the highway and quickly rallied nearby kayakers to help rescue him.
“It was the most heartbreaking sight,” he continued. “He looked like he was struggling to keep his head above water.”
Once they pulled the dog onto a kayak, he was finally reunited with Porter and Calistro, who rushed him to a veterinary clinic.
Fortunately, the vet determined that Chile was in overall good health but suffered from severe malnutrition and dehydration, having barely eaten during his time away. His fur was also so matted with oil that some had to be trimmed off.
As for where he had been, Calistro suspects Chile might have found refuge beneath a pier before somehow ending up in the water. Meanwhile, Scalpetta theorized he might have slipped through a hole in the fencing nearby.
This story has drawn comparisons to the famous “Hudson Miracle,” when U.S. Airways’ Captain “Sully” Sullenberger successfully landed an aircraft in the river back in 2009.
Now, Chile is back to his cheerful self, though he’s lost a bit of weight and seems less inclined to pull at his leash. To avoid any more mishaps, Porter and Calistro decided to buy him a new, sturdier harness.
