Harry, bull mastiff

Harry's Big Adventure
Silver Oaks Ranch
August 2007

Big Trees

It all started on Saturday morning, August 11, 2007 at 9am in the morning. It was a glorious day in the California Sierra Nevada; the air was crisp and clean and the scent of pine and sequoia trees was wafting through the air. We were just starting a brief holiday in the serene Big Trees area. We were staying with close friends at their hideaway mountain home which is situated on one of the corners of the Calaveras Big Trees State Park. Harry (our bull mastiff) bounded out the door and into the forest after his breakfast that morning. That was the last we saw of him till Tuesday, August 14, 2007.

Flyer for missing Harry

Lost

Harry got lost in the forest. We searched for two and a half days for Harry. We called day and night for Harry to come home. We slept little and the whole weekend seemed like a bad dream that we wished we could wake up from. We traversed the roads and covered the area in flyers. We even ventured deep into the forest in hopes of locating him. But all that we tried did not reveal Harry’s location to us. It was a difficult time and we were all starting to lose hope that we would ever see Harry again.

To Lake Tahoe

On Monday, August 13, 2007 we left Big Trees and proceed up to Tahoe. We had previously planned to meet friends in Lake Tahoe. We tried to put on a good face but we were all miserable. However, all was not lost.

During dinner that night, I glanced down at my cell phone and noted that I had a message waiting for me. The message was from our friends in Big Trees. I went outside the restaurant to pick up the message. I was hoping that it was good news, but I was also trying to prepare myself for the worst. I dialed their number and waited.

Kathy answered the phone and told me the good news; Harry was found alive and was with them! I was so relieved that my knees wobbled and I had to sit down.

Harry Found

The next day we headed back to Big Tree and to our reunion with Harry. What a joyous reunion it was. The story of how Harry was found is better than fiction. He was found on the North Fork of the Stanislaus River about 10-15 miles away from our friend’s mountain home. The red “x” on the map is where we were staying and the red circled area was where Harry was found.

The Rescue Story

A man named Bruce and his nephew were fishing three miles beyond the end of the trail of the North Fork of the Stanislaus River. Not many people go out that far and it is quite remote. They heard an animal howling in desperation. The howling was coming from the other side of the Stanislaus River, which is quite deep and has a strong current. Bruce braved the river and swam across it navigating around submerged boulders to reach the other side and investigate the noise. He climbed over the rocks by the bank to find a rather large dog trapped in a crevasse. He had to climb in and lift the dog out which was not an easy task, since Harry weighs about 140 lbs.

Harry was dehydrated and physically exhausted. He drank heavily from the river and tried to follow Bruce and his nephew out but Harry was so worn-out that Bruce had to carry him a good portion of the way back up the ridge to his vehicle (about a 3 mile trek). He took Harry to the Park Ranger who had heard about the missing dog from the flyers and our efforts to talk to as many people as possible in the Calaveras Big Trees State Park. The ranger called our wonderful friends and they picked Harry up from the Ranger’s station. Our friends thanked Bruce for his heroic deed and told him about the $1,000 reward for Harry’s return.

Bruce is one of those rare, good-hearted people. He did not want the reward and was just happy to help out. Needless to say we insisted that he take the reward. He decided that he would donate the reward to a charity of his choice.

We are very lucky that we have such good friends and that Bruce and his nephew discovered our dog. It is wonderful to know such quality people.

Source (and lots of great pictures at): http://silveroakranch.com/gpage2.html