Montrose Search and Rescue – Dog Rescues 2

Continuing with some other dog rescues performed by the Montrose Search and Rescue team, we look no further than Pickens Canyon in March 1991. Two young boys, best friends, were hiking the canyon at dusk. As often happens to young boys, they stayed out too long and darkness overtook them. Wrong turns in the dark with no flashlights took them down a steep incline, only to get trapped on a ledge with a 90-foot drop below them. With no way up and no way down, they were left with just one option: sit down in the dark and wait.

They were both scared but were confident their parents would find them. Sure enough, they soon heard their parents calling their names and were able to establish voice contact with them. One of the boys’ pets, a golden retriever named Sassha, was with the parents and she wasn’t going to let the boys sit out there alone. She scrambled down to the two boys and sat patiently with them while the parents went for help.

Soon the cliff face was illuminated by the spotlights of two helicopters while the MSAR came in by foot. They set up a rope system and lowered the boys and their dog down the cliff one-by-one. The dog was described as “real cooperative.” News vans waited at the bottom of the canyon to interview the boys, but Sassha got all the attention. One of the boys joked, “I was bummed out ’cause they cut me off the broadcast. My dog got on TV, but I didn’t!”

A sad but poignant story took place in Big Tujunga Canyon one Sunday in September 1988. (Full disclosure – the dog dies.) A young Tujunga man was walking with Clyde, his 9-year-old Doberman, near the highway by Narrows Bridge. The dog fell off the side of the road, and went down a sheer cliff several hundred feet. The man called to his dog but could hear no response. There was no trail down, and it was very steep. Not knowing what to do, he drove back home for help. Accompanied by his stepfather he returned to try to get down to his dog. He panicked and tried to go down the sheer canyon face after him, but the cliff was just too steep. He too began sliding down, but was able to grab onto a rock outcropping after sliding 30 feet. His stepfather on the road above was able to flag down a passing Forest Service vehicle, who called for the MSAR.

As darkness fell the big rescue chopper came in and lowered two paramedics to the dog owner, clinging to his precarious handhold. He was treated for minor injuries, cuts and scrapes, and was winched back up to the chopper. The chopper’s crew could see the dog on the canyon floor, crumpled and motionless, clearly dead, but because of darkness and low fuel they opted not to retrieve the body.

The next morning, Monday, the grieving dog owner returned to try to figure a way down to retrieve his pet’s body. As he told a local newspaper, “They won’t get my dog, so I got to go back and get him. He’s my best friend!”

The dog owner, more cautious now after his rescue the day before, gave up, but vowed, “I’m not an experienced climber, and yet I got to go back to him. I have to bury him. I just can’t leave him there. It’s just not right.”

On late Tuesday, the MSAR, fearing the man would injure himself trying to retrieve his beloved pet’s body, returned to the scene on foot. Rappelling down the cliff they found the dog’s body and raised it back up to the road for the grieving owner to bury.

For so many of us, our dogs and cats are family members. I’m glad that the Montrose Search and Rescue members feel the same. Although their first priority is human life, they still find time and energy to help out our loyal pets.

  mike lawler