In an epic worthy of his gladiator namesake, the fox terrier-cross survived a week in the company of ferocious feral pigs on the north shore of the Endeavour River followed by a brisk swim across the flooded and croc-infested waterway to reach his owners, Barb Rosendale and Dave Collie.

After being reunited with the much-loved 10-month-old, Ms Rosendale this week said she had given Maximus up for dead after he took off during a beachcombing trip on the river’s north shore.

“There were a lot of big pig tracks over there and we thought the pigs could’ve eaten him,” she told The Cairns Post.

Three searches failed to locate the pup.

“We thought he was a gonner,” Ms Rosendale said.

Then, more than a week later, came a dawn phone call from friends who spotted a shivering, exhausted Maximus paddling across the kilometre-wide rivermouth against a 10-knot current towards Cooktown’s lights, where he hauled himself ashore at the town’s boat ramp.

“They said ‘Are you coming down to the boatramp? Your dog’s waiting for you’,” a flabbergasted Ms Rosendale said.

“We have no idea how long he was in the water. The mouth of the harbour is full of crocodiles and sharks and gropers.

“The river’s been swollen. It’s been flooding and it had a lot of debris flowing down the river as well.”

Maximus, who measures just 45cm from nose to tail, refused to budge until his owners arrived to retrieve him.

“A couple of people had gone over to him and tried to coax him and he wouldn’t move,” Ms Rosendale said.

Maximus is now back aboard Mr Collie’s coral trout fishing boat exercising his sealegs.

“He really is Mad Max. He’s so gung ho,” Ms Rosendale said.

“He went out fishing two days already this week in absolutely bucketing weather.”