I know I'm fairly new and that I haven't posted in a while, but I thought I'd share this with all of you. Balto, our Rottie mix, is a hero!
To make a long story short:
Jordan and my best friend's boyfriend John left to go hiking with Balto at 6 am yesterday. They were supposed to be back at 4-5, it got late, we got scared. We went out to the trailhead with the sherriff and the car was still there so they called in Search & Rescue. After hours and hours of worrying in the rain and fog, Jordan and John and Balto stumbled out of the woods at 2:30 pm today. We were all so scared, they had lost cell phone contact and we hadn't heard from them since 12 noon yesterday. We also found out they had placed a 9-1-1 call at 7:38 pm last night. So we were FREAKING out.
It turns out they'd lost the trail and ended up on an unmarked trail. They slept in a cave for the night with Balto between them to keep them warm. He woke them up, growling and snarling and barking and actually scared off some decent-sized animal entering the cave. Jordan and John burned Jordan's favorite book, Jordan's journal, a pair of shorts, and even John's Bible just to stay warm.
S&R used hearing Balto's bark and Balto's fresh tracks to try and track them, but in the end they fought to get back and found their own way to the trailhead. They had to climb up the side of a waterfall at a pretty good slope. Jordan was so exhausted he was on his hands and knees. He tied Balto to his backpack and Balto literally pulled Jordan up the slope.
Balto even got TV time! He was on the 6 o'clock news.
Thank God all are safe, and thank GOD I made them take Balto!
Here are some links to videos and stories about it.
Video Links:
[link
http://www.newschannel9.com/video/]http://www.newschannel9.com/video/[/link]
Click on "Hikers Found."
[link
http://www.wrcbtv.com/]http://www.wrcbtv.com/[/link]
Scroll down to "Hikers Found Safe" and click on the video link. This one isn't as good - they call Jordan John at one point and call Balto "Bolton."
Print Links:
[link
http://www.tfponline.com/absolutenm/templates/content.aspx?articleid=9232&zoneid=83]http://www.tfponline.com/absolutenm/templates/content.aspx?articleid=9232&zoneid=83[/link]
[link
http://wdef.com/node/1953]http://wdef.com/node/1953[/link]
[link
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007701060341]http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007701060341[/link]
[link
npID=724&NewsID=773754&CategoryID=3418&on=1]http://news.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v2.cfm?show=localnews&npID=724&NewsID=773754&CategoryID=3418&on=1>http://news.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v2.cfm?show=localnews&npID=724&NewsID=773754&CategoryID=3418&on=1]http://news.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v2.cfm?show=localnews&npID=724&NewsID=773754&CategoryID=3418&on=1 [/link]