We love to see animal stories with happy endings! This lab was very lucky that there are people out there who care so much!
When a Troutdale, Oregon woman woke up to a dog crying outside early last Wednesday, she didn’t think it would take three days to rescue the distressed canine.
But the yowling went on. Until early Friday afternoon when the Oregon Humane Society Technical Animal Rescue team hoisted the desperate dog off a ledge 40 feet above the Sandy River.
Lian Jewell first woke up to the dog’s yowling and whimpering at 4 a.m. last Wednesday. At daybreak, she looked around her property to no avail.
She alerted Troutdale Police, which sent out an officer. He combed the area and found no trace of the dog, aside from the crying.
On Thursday, the dog woke up Jewell at 3 a.m. She called Multnomah County Animal Control; someone took a report over the phone, but said they couldn’t send anyone for days, Jewell said.
Mike Oswald, director of animal services, said an officer was not sent out because Troutdale police had searched the area without finding anything.
Later that day, Jewell and her husband crossed the river and finally determined that the dog was stuck somewhere on the face of the cliff. They still couldn’t see it.
That afternoon, Jewell’s daughter remembered reading that some humane societies have animal-rescue groups. They called OHS, which put them in touch with the volunteers at the Technical Animal Rescue. But dusk was approaching and the rescuers decided to come out the next morning.
At 6 a.m. Friday morning, Jewell woke to the dog’s barking, not crying, for the first time.
The rescue team arrived around 9 a.m. They went to the top of the cliff, strapped themselves in and peered down the drop. A black Labrador’s head was just barely visible through the foliage above a ledge.
René Pizzo, one of the volunteers, was lowered about 15 feet down from the edge of the cliff. At first, the black Lab growled at her. Despite its three-day ordeal, the dog proved to be a picky eater: it took three different offerings of kibbles to find the brand he liked. After a snack and some talking to - while hanging mid-air, of course - the dog allowed Pizzo to slip a harness on him.
Once on flat, solid ground, the Lab turned out to be a very happy camper. He had tags, too. His name’s Hercules.
An animal control officer, who’d been dispatched once the rescue team got involved, took the dog to a vet, who gave it a clean bill of health. Hercules was reunited with his owner that afternoon.
Source: The Oregonian
Kudos!