A woman with dementia who became lost in the Utah mountains last month due to intense heat was found safe thanks to her dog who stayed by her side and barked for several days.
On June 24, the woman went for a walk with her dog near her family’s cabin in the state’s Emery County. local news station KTVX reported on Friday. When she didn’t return, her family searched for her all night before contacting authorities in the morning.
Search teams were initially unable to find the woman as temperatures rose to nearly 100 degrees during the day. Then, about 3:30 a.m., conservation officer James Thomas and search dog Kip heard the sound of another dog barking. said a post on social media from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.
Utah Department of Wildlife Resources/Facebook
They followed the sound, but did not find the woman at that time. Thomas told KTVX that Kip continued to run toward the mountainside, but the officer thought it was unlikely the woman was that high.
The next day, a neighbor said he also heard barking. Security footage taken near the neighbor’s home showed the direction the woman had gone and revealed that she was walking toward the mountainside. Thomas, Kip and the neighbor used that information to get closer to her location, higher on the mountain than before. As night fell, the barking started again, “getting louder and louder,” the state wildlife agency said.
Following the barking eventually led to the missing woman and her dog, a chocolate Labrador. KTVX reported that the Lab was off-leash but had stayed with the woman.
“She’s really lucky she had her dog with her,” Thomas said.
The wildlife agency said the woman had no shoes, was extremely dehydrated and suffered from scratches and bruises, but was in “good condition” overall. She was taken to a local hospital for evaluation.
“At the end of the day, her dog saved her life by barking to alert our officer and K-9 Kip,” the agency said. “We are so happy she has been found safe.”