Missing Dog Survives Fires And Snowstorm To Be Reunited With His Owner After 4 Months
That's one tough dog.
Youtube Every pet owner’s nightmare became Ricardo Rodriguez’s reality on a pleasant Summer night during a camping trip in 2021. Rodriguez had taken his dog, Russ, on a camping trip near Lake Tahoe.
However, the trip ended badly when Russ went missing.
As is the case in these situations, Rodriguez did his best to find his beloved friend, but as time wore on, the search became more and more hopeless. Eventually, Ricardo Rodriguez had to go home without Russ.
Hours became days, days became weeks, weeks became months, every minute that passed was cause for acceptance that Ricardo might never see Russ again.
However, his patience was rewarded when Russ was eventually found.
Russ survived for 4 months alone before being reunited with his owner.
In the months since Russ’s disappearance, the terrain was anything but forgiving. Brutal bouts of stormy weather battered the area around Lake Tahoe, including the areas where Russ went missing.
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The devastating Caldor Fire scorched the landscape. All the while, Russ was nowhere to be found.
The odds of Russ's survival were slim.
By the end of the year and months into Russ’s disappearance, the Lake Tahoe region was blanketed in snow. With two full feet of snow layered on top of a slew of other natural disasters and months after Russ’s disappearance, all hope seemed lost that the dog would be found alive.
That was until Wendy Jones, head of Tahoe PAWS and TLC 4 Furry Friends heard that there was a dog on its own out in the snow.
Wendy Jones called on two volunteers to go check on the dog. Given the weather and location, the dog’s prospects were not good.
Leona Allen and Elsa Gaule set out in search of the dog and were not sure about what they would find. Allen said of their task, “I think both of us went up the hill thinking this was going to be a recovery, not a rescue. He had been up there, most of the day, and it was very cold and snowing all day.”
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Incredibly, Russ was found alive if cold, he was lucky to be found by the volunteers when he was. Allen and Gaule were ecstatic to have found the dog alive and Russ was quickly brought to the vet.
When it was decided that Russ was healthy enough, his microchip was used to get in touch with Russ’s owner, Ricardo Rodriguez.
Rodriguez was shocked when he found out what the call was about, he said, “I thought it was a work call and I answered it … like ‘How can I help you?' And they were like, ‘We found your dog in the middle of the snow.” Rodriguez continued.
“This guy is something else right here. He’s been through it all.”
Now that Russ is safely back in the care of his owner, hopefully, he will be more careful not to go too far next time that he’s in the great outdoors.
Dan O'Reilly is a writer who covers news, politics, and social justice. Follow him on Twitter.