Dehydrated dog blended in with the dirt — until Arizona hiker spots her ‘bright eyes’
UPDATE: A dog rescued after a hiker spotted her tucked away “in a small cutout on the side of a mountain,” is now up for adoption, an Arizona humane society says.
Bright Eyes, who was “found extremely dehydrated with some minor wounds,” was treated at Arizona Humane Society’s hospital and has been cleared to find her home, the nonprofit said in a May 6 news release.
The original story is below.
As a hiker trekked “off the beaten path,” he noticed something among the mounds of brown Arizona dirt.
A pair of “bright eyes” stared back at him on Lookout Mountain in Phoenix on April 24, Ruthie Jesus, field operations manager with the Arizona Humane Society, said in a Facebook video.
They belonged to a 2-year-old Shar-Pei mix that was hiding “in a small cutout on the side of a mountain,” the humane society said in a May 2 news release.
When the dog wouldn’t budge, Jesus said the hiker called the humane society.
Jesus said she and Tracey Miiller, the society’s field operations director, took the last vehicle from their fleet and made their way to the pup and hiker, who waited by her side for nearly two hours.
“We found this incredible dog who incidentally is literally the same color as the dirt,” Jesus said. “She blends in so much.”
Jesus said the dog was “sweet” and let her pet her head.
Though the dog “absolutely did not want to come out of that den,” Jesus said they managed to get her out.
“She was grossly dehydrated,” Jesus said, adding that the pair gave her water from their water bottles.
While she could walk, Jesus said the dog had cuts on her paws and a “laceration on her hind end.”
“Honestly, she was too weak,” Jesus said. “So we did kind of a funky, crazy hold-her-like-a-baby sort of situation.”
Jesus said she and Miiller took turns carrying the dog down the “teeny tiny rocky trail that was pretty slick.”
“She actually really just relaxed and seemed to enjoy being carried down the mountain,” Jesus said. “She was just an absolute angel.”
After getting her to the hospital, Jesus said the dog got fluids, antibiotics and pain medicine.
“I think she’d probably been up there several days and that was probably her last day,” Jesus said.
Now, the dog, named Bright Eyes, is on the mend at the humane society.
This story was originally published May 3, 2024 at 5:39 PM with the headline "Dehydrated dog blended in with the dirt — until Arizona hiker spots her ‘bright eyes’."
