An 8-year-old Sheltie named Riley is lucky to be alive after he was found high in the mountains five weeks after he went missing. Riley disappeared from his home after a snowfall covered the five-foot backyard fence at his home in Summit County, Colorado on April 8. He was later discovered at random by a hiker four miles away and 4,000 feet above where his home is located.
“We got a lot of snow that day, sure enough, I walked to the far south side of our property and we didn’t have a fence — it was 100% covered in snow,” Riley’s dad, Mike Krugman, told KDVR of how Riley got loose. “I’m assuming he walked over the fence and kept walking.”
Krugman immediately began searching and alerted Summit Lost Pet Rescue but as the weeks passed he began to lose hope Riley would be found. Flash forward to May 14 and Zachary Hackett was out on a hike when he veered off his original hiking route. That was when he heard a soft sound.
“I heard the smallest little yip and at first I was startled ‘cause you don’t know what is behind you,” Hackett told KDVR. “Then I said ‘wait a minute, that’s a dog. There shouldn’t be dogs up here.’”
Hackett added that the rescuing Riley was completely “random” as he had not planned on being in that area. “That little yip, I’ll never forget it,” he said. “That was him saying help me.”
Hackett found Riley lying down; the dog could not stand up. So he picked him up and carried Riley down the mountain. He took care of the dog overnight before taking him to an emergency veterinarian in the morning.
Riley was on an IV for three days and lost around half his weight. When Krugman heard that his dog was alive he thought it was a miracle. He doesn’t think Riley would have lasted another day given how much weight he lost.
“I don’t understand how he lived,” Krugman said of Riley. Riley belonged to Krugman’s late wife, who passed away in January. “Someone had to be looking out for him, maybe it was my wife.”
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