Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS : MISCELLANY / NEWSMAKERS AND MILESTONES

It was Orange County’s version of “Lassie, Come Home.” Except, name this “Yukon, Come Home.”

The golden retriever from Alaska had been staying with his owner, Jerry Reich, who was visiting his parents in Huntington Beach, when the dog got loose and started roaming.

Before his journey ended, Yukon lived with the street people in Newport Beach, sniffed around the dory boatmen’s catch at the pier, was sold at least once and traveled as far as Lake Elsinore.

But it was a police officer’s doggedness, not Yukon’s homing instincts, that reunited man with his best friend.

Newport Beach Police Officer Mike Deladurantey “did just an incredible investigation,” said Reich, 23. “He chased my dog all over the county.”

Deladurantey first spotted the dog cruising with a transient, and the sight of the odd pair bothered him so much he tracked down the transient the next day and asked him about the canine’s owner.

But by that time, the dog had been traded and was headed toward the Newport Pier.

After a brief stay with a few more street people, he wound up with a construction worker, who was going to give the dog to his father in Lake Elsinore, but then instead gave the canine to a neighbor, who sold him to someone in Newport Beach.

The construction worker, when he heard the story, took it upon himself to track the dog down.

Reich had left the dog with his parents while he went to register at Utah State University.

He circulated flyers in Huntington Beach when he discovered Yukon was gone. Man and dog had been through a lot together, living in a tent in a bay near Cordova, in Alaska, while Reich worked briefly as a salmon fisherman.

Reich was delighted at Yukon’s return.

“It was the best Christmas present I ever got,” he said.