From Here to There; a Rescue Story

Our old adopted dog, Duke, disappeared while Bob was mowing the lawns. Duke always shadows Bob for the hour or so it takes to get the job done. Bob finished; came in the house; I asked "Where's Duke?" The hunt was on. We drove a couple miles up the road; no Duke. We searched all along the top of the steep bank; no Duke. That Duke is deaf and only hears Bob's whistling didn't assist in the process. Finally Bob suggested we drive down to the beach at the bottom of our bank.

It is only a 15 minute walk down to the beach, but we drove to speed things up as it was getting on to dusk. From the car I hustled the 1/4 mile down the beach to where our property line is. I turned to face the bank and gave my best effort weak whistle. THERE! Rustling in the brush just above where I was standing. I knew it was Duke. Then Bob arrived and started with his stronger whistle. To this, Duke whined and barked. He was about 20 feet up the very steep section of sand and brambles and I hoped he would force his way down to us. No. Bob scrambled up as far as he could (see above pic for what we had to deal with) then yelled at me to go back to house to get long pants and brush cutters. Ugh. I ran back to car; tore up to the house; grabbed what I could find; jammed back to beach; ran back to where Bob was. No progress had been made in my absence.

Now Bob insists I go back to the closest vacation cabin to ask for a flashlight. I was up next to him and I just wanted to attack the problem using the steel rakes and clippers I had brought. He insisted. So I ran BACK to the cabin where a family just happened to be staying for a few days. They sprang to action and followed me. As I scrambled up the cliff (and it was hard) the family called out "Let Ian do it". Ian is a 20-something young man. OK. I gave him my windbreaker and gloves; Bob heaved him up towards where Duke was tangled in brambles. And by golly, Ian sort of shimmied under the mess, grabbed Duke and pulled him free. In the above pic, at the bottom is the beach and at the top, in the berry vines, is where Duke was. I do not think Bob and I could have rescued the dog without Ian; it was getting dark and I don't think we had the strength and mobility to do it. The happenstance that this family was at their cabin; that Duke heard my whistle and responded; that he was so close to the bottom of the bank...well it was luck.

Aside from some scratches and bruises, everyone is fine. We shall never know HOW Duke got so far down the 80 foot bank. We think he followed an overgrown abandoned trail which comes out just about where he was found. Duke is very frail, in addition to being deaf and mostly blind. He was found wandering around or abandoned, without a tag, about 6 months ago. I do not want to do this "over the bank rescue" again!