When a pet dog went missing for four months in the Tahoe snow, everyone expected the worst. This is the story of how a brave rescue team found and rescued the dog, saving his life forever.
Ricardo Rodriguez visited the Tahoe area, which is a mountainous region located on the border between the states of California and Nevada. He decided to take his beloved dog Russ, to keep him company on his trip.
While he was staying in Tahoe, Ricardo suddenly noticed that Russ was missing. He assembled a group of his friends and they spent hours searching for the dog. They called local shelters and even reported the dog as missing. The group asked everyone they saw, but his pet could not be found. Ricardo was devastated and had to return home without his furry friend.
“After months of not hearing back from anyone, I assumed he was in good hands with a different owner,” Ricardo commented. “I was hopeful that one day he would return.”
Four months later, two best friends were skiing near Twin Peaks when they found a black dog that was trapped in a tree well. They couldn’t reach the dog, but shared pictures of him on social media, hoping that they would be able to track the owner down.
The picture caught the attention of Wendy Jones, owner of Tahoe PAWS and TLC Furry Friends, an organization that specialises in rescuing dogs. Wendy and her team have been trained to track down missing pets in the area of the Sierra and Western Nevada.
Wendy decided to start a rescue mission for the trapped dog, and she took two other rescue volunteers to help her: Leona Allen and Elsa Gaule. The team knew that if they left the dog there, it was only a matter of time before it died of starvation or loss of heat.
“We didn’t even hesitate,” said Leona. “This was a one-shot deal, we either got him or he didn’t survive the night.”
The team also contacted Officer Kyle Shumaker, who works for El Dorado County Animal Control. However, he didn’t have the right equipment to rescue the dog. He instead gave the rescue team a sledge, which they would need for the uphill, snowwy trek.
It was already freezing, and was due to drop by another two degrees Fahrenheight. But using only the original social media photo, a map, and some dog tracks, they eventually found the poor dog. The team didn’t know it yet, but this was in fact Ricard’s lost dog Russ.
Leona recalls the sighting:
“I looked up in my headlamp and saw this dark blob in the snow under the tree well, and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s the dog, and he’s not alive anymore.’ So I walked up, and all of a sudden, he opened his eyes and lifted his head, and I screamed!” She added that the scream was “just involuntary”, simply an expression of her relief that Russ was still alive.
Leona described it as one of the “happiest moments” she has ever experienced, and her teammate Elsa suggested a plan of action. The first thing the team needed to do was gain the dog’s trust.
Initially, Russ was frightened and he instinctively growled at the strangers as they got closer to him. It was understandable, as the poor dog had survived months in the snow, alone and afraid.
Elsa took a chance and tried to gently pet him, in the hopes it would calm him down. “I took my hand and put it under his chin, and he rested his head on my hand right away,” she recalled.
The next step was to get the shivering dog warm, so they wrapped him in a blanket and put him on the sledge. He was nervous and wouldn’t stay on the sled at first, but after some cuddles with Leona, he relaxed and sat on the sledge.
Russ had survived on very little food, harsh temperatures, and there had been fires in the area too. But when he was checked out by a vet, they miraculously found nothing wrong with him, except for him being a little shaken up by the whole experience. They described him as “cold, hungry, and thirsty, but happy and sweet.”
The team found that Russ had a microchip, but it was outdated and couldn’t lead them to Ricardo, so they continued to search. The last location that the microchip had on it led the team to find the missing dog report that Ricardo and his friends had created a few months prior. The team were able to get in touch with Ricardo and let him know his precious pet was safe and sound.
Ricardo was over the moon and immediately came to pick up his dog.
“When contacted, the owner was ecstatic to find out that his dog was alive!” the TLC 4 Furry Friends wrote on their Facebook.
Russ was so excited to be reunited with his owner, and they were able to go home together again, after months spent apart.
If you would like to donate to the TLC 4 Furry Friends and support the incredible volunteer work they carry out, you can head to their Facebook page .
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