Hikers Find Dog Missing for Almost a Month in Australian National Park

 In the harsh terrains of the Australian outback, where relentless sun and ruthless wildlife dominate, survival is a skill honed over time. So, when a group of hikers discovered a dog struggling in a rock pool in Queensland's Mt. Glorious National Park, they knew they had stumbled upon a miracle.

The account of this extraordinary rescue unfolds through the narration of a Reddit user, Dangerm0use, who was hiking through the national park along with her husband and father. They came across an exhausted dog, its strength rapidly dwindling in the freezing water of the rock pool. With no clues about how long the dog had been trapped there, where it came from, or even if it was friendly, they knew they had to act swiftly.

"Either way, we couldn't leave it there in the freezing water. It was completely exhausted from its attempts to struggle out of the deep section it had fallen into, and there’s no way it would’ve survived the night," Dangerm0use recounted.

Armed with a large stick and a rope, the hikers carefully maneuvered the rope around the dog's head and shoulders. With gentle yet firm pulls, they managed to drag the dog onto a rocky embankment, away from the deadly embrace of the cold water.

Contrary to their initial worries, the dog showed no aggression. Instead, it sluggishly moved away from the rescuers, up the bank and into the thick lantana beside the pool. Dangerm0use noted, "We figured if she’d been someone’s pet, there was a chance she had been dumped or lost."

The dog seemed reluctant to tag along with the trio, but the hikers were not about to abandon her in the unforgiving wilderness. Their chance encounter had sparked a bond, one born out of compassion and the innate human instinct to protect. They knew they had to do whatever it took to ensure the dog's safety.

This chance rescue in the heart of the Australian outback is a testament to the enduring spirit of survival and the extraordinary acts of kindness that can arise when we least expect them. It is a reminder of our shared responsibility towards our fellow creatures, and the lengths to which we can go to ensure their well-being. It's a story of hope, resilience, and the profound connection that exists between humans and animals.

“She was in a completely inhospitable section of bush, in a gully with cliff face and hectares of national park on one side, and a scrubby, rocky, unscaleable bank up to a busy road on the other. There were also no houses within at least a 5km radius, and no obvious way for her to make her own way out of the gully,” she said. “We saw her podgy little rump disappear into the lantana, giving us no other option than to wade in after her.”

They tried comforting the dog and letting her recover her strength. It was going to take more than just encouragement to get this 88-pound pup out of the gully.

“She was very dejected, and obviously still exhausted. I snapped away the lantana from her little nest, and gradually got in closer, letting her get used to us being there. She was still apprehensive, but not aggressive, so after a while I took a chance and gave her a scratch on the head … and she rewarded me with a lick on the hand,” the woman wrote. “Despite obviously having been camped there for at least a few days, we noted that our little companion wasn’t exactly lacking in mass, leading us to dub her Miss Piggy. We spent a bit more time getting acquainted with Miss Piggy, while we started to hatch a plan to get her out.”

With a strong rope and a few slip knots, they were able to make a harness and pull Miss Piggy out of the pit, over loose rocks and brush.

“The little sweetie showed her appreciation of our patience by wriggling over to me and resting her head on my leg. I hadn’t wanted to be too familiar with her to this point, but she gave me the go ahead to give her a reassuring cuddle,” the woman wrote. “It was becoming pretty obvious that she wouldn’t be able to make it up the bank unless we carried her, and so we were throwing around options for a harness and hammock set-up, using towels and ropes. My husband had a brainwave, remembering that we had a large canvas bag in our car (15 mins walk back up the creek). We figured that if we could get her into the bag, we could MacGyver together some apparatus to transport her out.”

Fastening the canvas bag to a large branch, the woman’s brother and father lifted Miss Piggy out of the

gully and carried her back to safety. It took all of 30 minutes just to make the 3-meter vertical climb to the nearby street.

About 15 kilometers north of where the dog was found, her owner was still hoping for the best. Elly-Bobby, the dog’s real name, had gone missing on June 30, and was found on July 23. The hikers had no idea what she had been up to during that time.

“Her condition was surprisingly good for a pup that had been homeless for nearly a month. We also have no idea how she came to be in such an isolated part of the bush, with no signs of injury and only basic signs of exposure,” the woman wrote. “We’d speculated that perhaps she was picked up and later dumped, or that she’d found a temporary home but hadn’t stuck around. Whatever the story, we were just happy to have been in the right place at the right time to be able to help her.”

Bobby’s owner never stopped believing she would come home, and had mounted a substantial Facebook and neighborhood poster campaign in hopes of finding her. The pair were very happy to be reunited, as were many others who followed the story. Once Dangerm0use posted her photo journal to Reddit, it went viral, and has since been viewed more than 500,000 times.

“Whatever the story, we were just happy to have been in the right place at the right time to be able to help her,” she wrote.

Losing a pet is never easy to deal with, but there’s no better feeling than seeing those happy tails come wagging home.