Can you spot a dog in this photo? Rescuers save pup named Honey Bear from Idaho cliff
A 6-month-old pup bolted from her Idaho yard and ended up stranded on the side of a cliff.
Honey Bear escaped her yard in Hailey on June 29. The family, who hung lost dog posters in the area, said they were heartbroken.
The pup was missing for five days before someone spotted her on Della Mountain. She was nearly impossible to find.
“We don’t know exactly how Honey Bear got to where she was,” Wood River Fire and Rescue officials said. “All signs point to she just kept climbing up the draw getting into steeper and steeper terrain, unable to retreat.”
Photos of the mountain barely showed the dog on the cliff. Ron Bateman from the Wood River Fire and Rescue said Honey Bear looked like a tiny white spot on the mountain.
“There is a prominent tree in the middle of the … picture,” Bateman told McClatchy News in an email. “Follow up from its top. There’s a dark spot on the cliff and below that a white spot (Honey Bear).”
Someone in the area first heard Honey Bear and called rescue officials for help Saturday, Bateman said. They got a call from someone saying a dog was trapped on a cliff.
They knew Honey Bear was on the loose, and were eager to save her.
“Eight dog-loving rescuers made their way via Colorado Gulch to the top of the mountain and suited up for the approximately 800 foot descent to build an anchor,” officials said. “A lookout crew (with a scope) … guided rescuers down the mountain.”
A rescuer was lowered where Honey Bear was located on the mountain, and found her “anxious, but happy,” officials said.
The pup and rescuer were then raised back up the mountain and were able to descend through a canyon.
Five hours after the call to the rescue team and five days after Honey Bear went missing, she was reunited with her owner and family.
“I am so humbled by what they did for my DOG,” Erica Exline, who said she was Honey Bear’s owner, posted on Facebook. “These heroes are dog lovers and they did not want to leave her alone for another night so they put their own safety ahead of my dogs!!!”
This story was originally published July 7, 2021 at 3:19 PM with the headline "Can you spot a dog in this photo? Rescuers save pup named Honey Bear from Idaho cliff."