It was an emotional moment for rescuers and a family after a missing dog named “Puppy” was found 40 hours after he went missing. And it was thanks to another dog, Tino, a Search and Rescue dog on his first mission.
Puppy, the 150-pound Great Pyrenees, disappeared on a trail while accompanying his owner Karen James on a horseback ride in McCleary, Washington. After two days of desperate searching his owners called Three Retrievers Lost Pet Rescue for help.
The non-profit rescue put Search and Rescue dog Tino to work to try and track down Puppy.
Within a short time, Tino tracked Puppy down only to find him submerged in a muddy gully less than a mile from his home. Only his head was sticking out of the mud.
It took three rescuers to pull Puppy out safely. “Tino did a great job today, finding this old dog stuck in the mud,” Three Retrievers Lost Pet Rescue wrote on Facebook.
“His back feet weren’t working at first, probably because he had been stuck in the cold mud for hours. The woods go on for many miles, and Puppy’s family may not have found him without the help of a search dog.”
After placing Puppy in a wagon, he was transported home where his family was overjoyed to see him.
“He could not have gotten out of the mud,” James told Fox 13. “We would not have seen him because he was far enough off the trail.”
She added, “And you know there’s miles and miles, acres and acres of wilderness out there to search. We just never would have found him.”
Three Retrievers Lost Pet Rescue said that Tino had been training for 16 months and that this was Tino’s first “Walk up find” of his career. We’d say it was a great success!
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