A dog who led rescue teams to his dementia stricken owner while she was lost in Utah mountains has been hailed as a hero.
The elderly woman went missing following a dog walk near her family’s cabin on June 24.
When she failed to return, rescuers began scouring Joe’s Valley in Emery County amid scorching 100F heat.
After a few days with no sign of the woman, the team was giving up hope when the sound of her dog barking managed to lead them to her location.
‘She’s really lucky that she had her dog with her,’ conservation officer James Thomas who found the woman told ABC4.
The discovery came after rescuers and neighbors reported hearing barking out in the wilderness.
Thomas headed out with his K-9 partner Kip but they were constrained by the extreme heat which meant Kip could only work for a short amount at a time.
Hope was fading fast as the sun set and the woman had not been found. While day time temperatures were high, overnight the mercury plummeted to 55F.
The next day, a review of surveillance footage showed the woman and her chocolate Labrador walking west towards the mountain.
Thomas, Kip and a concerned neighbor headed out and they began searching higher up the terrain.
As they climbed the mountain the barking got louder until they were eventually led to the woman’s location.
She was severely dehydrated, missing her shoes and covered in scratches and bruises.
‘She thought she’d only been gone about 10 minutes,’ Thomas said. ‘To see her still alive, it was a good feeling. It was pretty remarkable what she went through.’
The neighbor gave her his water and returned to the subdivision to get cell service and notify the sheriff while the officer remained with her.
She was then taken to the hospital for a medical evaluation.
‘At the end of the day, her dog saved her life by barking to alert our officer and K-9 Kip,’ Utah Division of Wildlife Services said in a post on Facebook. ‘We’re so glad she was found safe.’
Last weekend, three hikers were killed in Utah amid the searing heat.
The victims included Albino Herrera Espinoza, 52, and his daughter Beatriz Herrera, 23, from Green Bay, Wisconsin, who got lost and ran out of water while in Canyonlands National Park.
A 30-year-old woman was also found dead in Snow Canyon State Park while rescuers were attending to reports of another person with heat exhaustion.