A dog missing since August 7th was been reunited with his owners thanks to members of three local fire departments. While responding to another call on Wednesday, County of Grande Prairie fire crews spotted Toby on a ledge along the Red Willow River. Firefighters say the dog appeared to be stuck and unable to make it to the top or down to the river.
Members of the county’s high angle rescue team were called in and crews from Wembley and Grovedale fire departments brought in a boat to help with bring rescuers to the remote location.
“Once we crossed the river, it took an hour and a half of hiking to find a location where we could rig rope rescue equipment to access Toby, who was stranded on a sandstone outcropping cliff,” said Fire Captain Mike Shykora. “After he was secured, we brought him back down 80 feet to the awaiting boat and back to the staging area.”
Once he was rescued, firefighters took to Facebook scouring pages to try and find the owner. Eventually they found a missing dog post by Grande Prairie resident Craig Rigler and Toby was reunited with his family.
Toby went missing at Spring Lake, over 100 kilometres away from where he was rescued. Firefighters believe he survived by drinking water from a small puddle on the ledge.