In a heartwarming story of friendship and loyalty one brave pup stayed by her injuring pal in the wild for a week until help was found.
Earlier this month, Tillie the golden retriever and Phoebe the basset hound had been out for a walk together where they live on the island of in Vashon, Washington.
When the pair didn’t come home that night their worried owner contacted local animal-welfare volunteers for help with the search.
Rescuers looked in the local woods for days but their efforts proved fruitless because unbeknownst to them Phoebe had fallen into a ravine several kilometres away and couldn’t get out. The pup would have surely died had it not been for what Tillie did next.
A stranger reported that Tillie had been seen on their property seemingly trying to draw human attention, so the search volunteers ventured out to investigate.
“We had been out looking for about a week when we heard from a farmer here who noticed a reddish dog on his property,” animal volunteer Amy Carey told The Dodo. “She had quietly approached him, and when she got his attention, turned around and headed back toward this ravine nearby. I decided to go check it out.”
“We had been out looking for about a week when we heard from a farmer here who noticed a reddish dog on his property”
“She had quietly approached him, and when she got his attention, turned around and headed back toward this ravine nearby. I decided to go check it out.”
Throughout the whole saga Tillie was well and able enough to have gone home and saved herself but it seems she knew that had she left Phoebe would have likely never been found.
“When I saw what was happening, tears were immediate. It was just so touching,” Carey added.
It was Tillie going very pointedly up to this person in their pasture, letting herself be seen, and running back to Phoebe — that’s why we found them. It’s really amazing.”
Remarkably the dogs were both found in good health. They were hungry but had cleverly avoided dehydration by drinking rainwater.
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