Dog found on top of Mount Kilimanjaro

In news of the slightly bizarre, a group of climbers have spotted a dog that seems to have made its home at the top of Mount Kilimanjaro. Dogs don’t usually live so high above sea level (5800m above sea level) and scientists aren’t sure how it has managed to survive the freezing conditions with no apparent source of food.

Other matters of interest include how it managed to climb that high and who, if anyone, owns it.
One of the tourists who spotted the dog took a picture of it with his cell phone but apparently did not try to approach the animal.
The marketing officer for one of the companies that offers Kilimanjaro tours (the same group that took up the climbers who saw the dog) said that a dog had been spotted on the mountain ten years ago. This dog was only at 3960 metres above sea level at Baranco camp. But, the marketing officer strongly implies that the picture of the dog taken near the peak strongly resembles the dog of ten years ago. He said, “When the tourists showed us the picture of the dog we could not believe. How did it survive in such freezing cold and what was it eating?” If it is the same dog the story would be truly extraordinary.

However, a vet, Wilfred Marealle, has that as it is extremely unusual for a dog to live so high up in freezing cold temperatures it’s likely that there is something wrong with it. Marealle suggests that it could have rabies. He has also advised all climbers to stay away from the dog, just in case. If it is indeed rabies, the chances that it is the same dog as ten years ago are virtually zero.