Lann Anthony Lanier

It was a life the free-spirited 41-year-old had always dreamed about. And Keydo, a black half-wolf, half-German Shepherd, was more at home on the bow of a sailboat than in any back yard.

The dream came to an end July 18, 1997 as Lanier drowned trying to outrun Hurricane Danny off Alabama. Exactly what happened in the mountainous swells and 80-mph winds, only Keydo knows.

Amazingly, the dog survived and swam to shore. With the help of a vacationing family and an airline's goodwill, Keydo made his way back Saturday to Lanier's family in Chandler.

"It was a bittersweet reunion," said Lynn Lanier, Lann's sister. "Keydo looks like he's dropped a few pounds, and he seems a little sad. But he's healthy, and he looks good. We don't know how far, but he did have to swim.

Lanier was especially grateful to Chandler Mitts, the woman who found Keydo and persuaded Delta Airlines to fly the dog home for free.

"We have seen a lot of compassion," Lanier said. "People have been so willing to help and have really bent over backwards for us."

Before his fervor for sailing, Lann Lanier had worked in construction and computers in the valley. He left all that behind to move with Keydo to South Padre Island, Texas, to sail full time.

His goal, which he hoped to accomplish on his latest trip, was to sail to St. Thomas Island, his sister said.

Lanier had called his family from a port in Louisiana about a week before Hurricane Danny struck. When the storm struck Mobile on July 18 1997, Lanier knew her brother was expected to be in the area. On July 19, the day after Lanier's then unidentified body had been found, his sister read a small news item about the storm in the paper here.

I read that they had found a swamped sailboat, and just immediately I knew it was him and started crying," Lanier said. "I called the sheriff, and he asked me to describe the boat. I said it would have been just him and his dog. He said 'Ma'am, that dog was on the beach. There's no doubt this was your brother's boat.' "

Authorities knew Keydo had survived the storm because he was seen near where Lanier's body was fouind. But in the wind and confusion, the dog got away and was not seen again until he approached Mitts on Wednesday outside her beach home in Fort Morgan.

"It was like something out of Indian folklore," Mitts said. "All at once I saw this wolf, and then he was gone."

She had read about the missing dog in the local newspaper and empathized because she owned a dog, T.G., that was half-coyote. When she caught sight of Keydo again a few seconds later, she decided to let T.G. off his leash.

"I let my dog go do the talking," she said. "He has that call of the wild, too. so they just connected. I was able to come up slowly while he was occupied and put my hands on him. He's just a baby, a lamb, but he was scared."

Mitts didn't want to see Keydo go to a dog pound, so she called a local journalist she knew and got a phone number for Lynn Lanier in Chandler.

When Mitts spoke with Lanier on the phone, Mitts asked why some might consider a silly question. She wanted to know if Lanier would like to talk to Keydo. Mitts held the phone to the dog's ear while Lanier and then Lanier's mother, Doreen Dickinson, got on the line.

"He knew it was her," Mitts said. "I had chill bumps and tears running down my face because I could hear her saying through the speaker, 'Keydo Keydo, we love you so much. Come home.' When I picked up the phone, he was jumping around and pushing on me to give it back."

In the days before they could arrange for Keydo's return to the valley, the Mitts family took one of their boats out for a little sailing. They didn't plan on taking Keydo, didn't think he'd go after what he had been through.

"He jumped on the boat and he wasn't getting off," Mitt said. "I think he either thought we were going out to look for his master, or he is just that comfortable on a boat, but he didn't want to come back in."

• Lann Lanier Headstone at Lebanon Cemetery
• Hurricane Danny

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