The sound of a barking dog on a remote river location southwest of Grande Prairie launched a daring high-angle rescue by emergency crews and resulted in the joyful reunion of a family with a four-legged friend they feared was dead.
Grande Prairie fire crews were out on a call Wednesday near the confluence of the Red Willow and Wapiti rivers when one of the firefighters noted a dog trapped on a cliffside outcropping about midway up the canyon wall, the County of Grande Prairie said in a news release.
Crews didn’t know that Toby had last been seen by his family a week earlier but they could immediately see that he had no way to safely get down to the water or back up to the top.
The rescue ended up involving emergency crews from three communities — the Regional Fire Service’s high-angle team and fire departments from Grovedale and Wembley, which helped transport equipment across the river.
At that point, two crew members, including search and rescue team lead Travis Skrepnek, hiked for about 90 minutes before finding a vantage point from which they could reach the distressed canine.
“I was … lowered about 60 feet down a ravine and over the ledge of the cliff, lowered down to the puppy himself,” Skrepnek said in a video posted by the county. “The puppy was pretty tired. Thankfully he was very co-operative. You could tell he wanted help.”
When the harness wouldn’t work, Skrepnek manufactured a makeshift one out of webbing. Once they were both attached to the rope, the pair were lowered 24 metres — about 80 feet — to a waiting boat in the river, he said in the video.
Seeing that the dog had been well-cared, fire crews scoured social media in search of his owners. They found a Facebook post from owner Craig Rigler and arrangements were made to reunite the dog with his family, which included two young children.
Rigler said in the video that he was overwhelmed to hear the story of his dog’s rescue.
Toby was last seen Aug. 7 at Spring Lake, more than 100 kilometres away from where he was rescued. Firefighters suspect he survived by drinking water from a small puddle on the ledge.
“My son had given up. He said ‘Dad, Toby’s dead, he has to be dead,”” Rigler said in the video.
“I want to say thank you to everybody that participated in this. You went way out and above beyond what anybody would do. It is seriously amazing.”
