Zach Hackett,33,was 12,000 feet up a Colorado mountain last May when he heard a faint sound. As he walked through a clearing,he found the source:a black-and-white Shetland sheepdog,shaking behind fallen pine trees. "Hey,buddy,"he called out. "You want a cookie?Can you come with me?"The dog was too weak to move.
Five weeks earlier,Mike Krugman,74,had let his dog Riley out for a predinner walk on his nearby 36-acre property. When Krugman couldn't find his dog,he became concerned. He thought,"Maybe Riley has gone looking for Pam. "His wife,Pam Krugman,had died of a heart condition months earlier. The next morning,Krugman
looked for Riley's tracks in the snow and asked a local animal shelter to help search. A volunteer posted "missing" posters and searched the area for Riley. But in vain. Krugman even left out his wife's housecoat,thinking her smell might bring Riley back.
Wrapping Riley in a wind breaker and cradling him like a baby,Hackett carefully picked his way down for two hours before reaching the Blue River around dusk. He carried Riley through the knee-deep water. The current was strong,but he felt he had to cross the river instead of walking around it,or it would take too long,and Riley needed to be warmed up. When he reached his apartment,he ran a warm bath for Riley and turned on a heater.
Hackett cared for Riley through the night. then drove him to a nearby shelter in the morning.
People at the shelter were shocked when they checked the records and learned Riley had been gone for five weeks and one day. In that moment,Hackett realized why Riley was so weak when he found him—Riley weighed 24 pounds when he went missing,and had lost half of his body weight.
The moment Krugman got the call from the shelter,saying Riley was found,he cried. Krugman picked up Riley and drove him straight to a vet and was just so thankful for what he did and for the efforts of all the people who searched for Riley.