Tag: Utah

14-Year-Old Lost Dog Found After 2 Months in Utah Canyon

Apparently this is “Amazingly Lucky Senior Dog Week.” A few days ago, a 13-year-old blind dog named Cesar was rescued after he wandered out of his yard — and fell into a 15-foot-deep hole at the construction site next door. Despite his ordeal, Cesar wasn’t seriously injured.

Yet another senior dog who’s losing his eyesight is also safe and sound at home this week after a very scary experience.

During a July camping trip to Payson Canyon, Utah, a 14-year-old Great Pyrenees/Collie mix named Toby wandered away from his family and seemed to disappear. His family spent the next few weeks searching for Toby. Neither search dogs, trail cameras or drones could locate the senior dog.

“Toby is old and going blind. He is likely afraid and confused,” his owner wrote on July 25 in a Utah – Lost Dogs, Cats & Pets Facebook group post. “We are so worried about him, and we just want him. He is the sweetest dog and is not aggressive at all, so he is easily approachable.”

Nearly two months after Toby’s disappearance, his family was contacted by someone who recognized his picture in that Facebook post.

“Once he went downhill and couldn’t get back up the mountain, he found a spot with shade and water and just laid around,” Toby’s unidentified owner told KUTV. That spot was about a mile and a half away from his family’s campsite.

“He did not do much traveling,” Toby’s owner added. “Laid there for two months and waited for something to happen… for someone to find him and kept himself alive.”

Toby, who weighed about 75 pounds before his disappearance, lost about 30 pounds. He was otherwise healthy — and is probably extremely happy to be back home.

Photo: Utah – Lost Dogs, Cats & Pets/Facebook

Volunteer Rescuers Carry Exhausted 190-Pound Mastiff Down Mountain Trail

Floyd, a 3-year-old, 190-pound Mastiff, managed to hike up the Grandeur Peak mountain trail in Utah on Sunday afternoon with his dog dad. But when it was time to head back down the trail, Floyd refused to budge.

As the sun began to set and the temperature began to drop, other hikers who saw the duo called 911.

Volunteer first responders with the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue (SLCOSAR) team immediately sprang into action. “They had no hesitation whatsoever, even when they heard it was a dog,” Sgt. Melody Gray, of the Unified Police Department, told CNN.

Armed with a stretcher, the team “headed up the trail to make sure Floyd could get off the mountain … before it got too cold,” SLCOSAR posted on its Facebook page Sunday.

During their four-hour rescue effort, the team strapped Floyd onto the stretcher and carried the big guy all the way down the trail. At one point they had to walk across a narrow concrete beam above a creek, but neither they nor Floyd seemed the least bit nervous.

“Floyd was a good boy and was happy to be assisted,” SLCOSAR wrote in its Facebook post. “Floyd, his human and all the team members got off the mountain around 10:30 p.m.”

In a comment on the Facebook post, Amy Sandoval wrote that Floyd is her brother’s dog. During their hike, her brother took a wrong turn and the two had to find their way back to the trail. By then, Floyd was exhausted.

The Mastiff is fine and has been getting plenty of TLC at home. “Hopefully, Floyd will be up and hiking again soon!” SLCOSAR wrote. (And hopefully those future hikes will be on flatter trails!)

The all-volunteer SLCOSAR has over 30 members who are on call 24/7. All members are trained and equipped to handle any type of outdoor emergency.  It’s pretty impressive that these heroes perform nearly 100 rescues every year, all free of charge.

Each of these rescues costs SLOCSAR about $12,000. If you’d like to make a donation to help the team continue their heroic efforts, visit their website.

Photo: Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue/Facebook

Lucky Dog Survives 300-Foot Fall from Cliff

Toby may be an English Sheepdog/Poodle mix, but he apparently has something in common with cats: nine lives. And he just used up one of them during a hike with his family near Zion National Park in Utah.

As the McInnes family walked along a Gooseberry Mesa trail April 7, their 1-year-old, 75-pound pup saw something — a squirrel, perhaps? — and took a leap off a cliff. He fell 150 feet, then tumbled down another 150 feet.

“For a split second you hope that he landed on something, but I knew there was nothing over there,” Ben McInnes, Toby’s dog dad, told KSL. “It was awful. You could hear him sliding and bouncing and yelping.”

Meg McInnes, Toby’s dog mom, called 911. The dispatcher couldn’t promise her that a search-and-rescue team would show up to save Toby.

But, about an hour later, the rescuers arrived.

“When those things happen, we try and help them out,” Deputy Darrell Cashin, with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, told KSL. “It’s not something we normally do, just going to rescue a dog, but it’s just the complication of: If we don’t, who else is going to try and get down to him?”

Mike Thomas, the first responder to reach Toby, carried him all the way back up the steep cliff.

Toby suffered head, brain and eye injuries, as well as a lot of scrapes, but he will live to bark about his plunge. He’s now resting at his home in Eagle Mountain, Utah, according to the Associated Press.

“I’ve been doing this for 25 years, and I’ve had patients fall 20 feet and die,”  Dr. Kelly Houston, the veterinarian who treated Toby, told KSL. “I’ve never had one do what Toby did and survive.”

Here’s to a speedy recovery. And here’s hoping that on future hikes, the McInnes family keeps Toby on a very short leash.

Photo via Twitter

K9 Bloodhound Finds Utah Boy Who Fell into Manhole

“I was really scared … I thought I was going to miss Christmas,” six-year-old Kollin Bailey of Herriman, Utah, told the Deseret News.

Kollin was flying a kite Friday afternoon when he tripped and fell about 10 feet into a manhole. “I was looking back at my kite and I fell, then I blacked out. And when I opened my eyes, I was in there,” he said.

“I saw lots of sticks. Sticks were everywhere. And I think there was something, I think it was green, it was moving down there.”

As the hours passed, his aunt, who was babysitting Kollin, became very worried and called his mom, Shara Bailey. The West Valley City Police were notified of Kollin’s disappearance around 5:30 p.m. Officers and community members spread out around the area, about 25 miles south of Salt Lake City, and searched for the missing boy.

His bike was discovered near a water retention site, but no one noticed the open manhole or heard Kollin shouting for help.

That is, until K9 search dog Copper, a 100-pound Bloodhound who, like Kollin, is also 6 years old, was put into action. After getting a whiff of Kollin’s pillow, Copper led his handler, Sgt. Shane Matheson, to the manhole.

“To him it is just a game of hide and seek,” Matheson told the Deseret News. “It’s kind of a nice change of pace from finding bad guys to actually helping a family out.”

Matheson helped lift Kollin out of the manhole. The boy suffered a broken elbow and scratches, but is otherwise okay.

Someone — not a city worker — had apparently tampered with the manhole cover and removed it.

“These need to be bolted down, something, or (have) a lock on it,” Shara said. “There are three manholes in that area where kids play all the time.”

The evening after he was rescued, Kollin, with his arm in a sling, visited the police station to give his hero a reward. He gave Matheson and Copper big hugs — along with a bone-shaped treat for Copper.

“I never thought I’d owe my son’s life to a dog,” Shara said.

On its Facebook page, the West Valley City Police Department wrote, “We are grateful for our K9 teams and their ability to make a life-saving difference, as well as the partnership with other law-enforcement agencies that puts the safety of the public at top priority.”

Despite Kollin’s worries, thanks to Copper, he won’t be missing Christmas this year. And as for Copper? Kollin’s dad, Shawn Bailey, told the Deseret News, “I was telling everybody at the hospital last night, ‘That dog is going to get the biggest bone he’s ever gotten for Christmas.'”

Photo via Facebook

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exit mobile version