Firefighters on Thursday rescued an old dog from the bottom of a ravine outside of Woodland where it had been stuck for three days after going missing.
Eyck Bernardy, 77, lives on Butte Hill Road north of Woodland. His German shepherd rescue, Sheppy, has the run of his property. On Tuesday, Sheppy disappeared.
“He’s my good friend, as they say,” Bernardy said. “I was just beside myself, you know.”
His plot is fenced in on all but one side, which leads down into a steep, brambly gully. He looked everywhere, and then on Wednesday, he heard barking from down the gully.
With machete in hand, he carefully climbed through the vine maple and blackberry. At the bottom, in a spring that feeds into nearby Ross Creek, he found Sheppy.
“He’s filthy, but at least he had a little water,” he said. “It was a reunion, I’ll tell you.”
Sheppy weighs about 65 or 70 pounds and is lame in his hind legs. Bernardy couldn’t bring him up. When it got too dark to see, he stayed down there with Sheppy until there was enough moonlight that he could scramble back inside.
He called Clark County Fire & Rescue early the next morning.
“It was quoted to me, ‘The trail was steep enough to make a mountain goat dizzy,’ ” district Chief John Nohr said.
It’s not generally a job they’d take, Nohr said, but Bernardy needed the help.
“I couldn’t have done it on my own,” Bernardy said. “The terrain was just so horrible. I’m fairly fit for my age, but I’m no great athlete anymore.”
Using a tarp to carry Sheppy, the firefighters brought him back up the hill.
Nohr said the dog was a little dehydrated and would probably need a few days to recover.
“He was hungry,” Bernardy said.
Coincidentally, Bernardy found out that the fire district uses brush-cutting blades for which he holds the patent.
“I can’t say enough good things about these guys. They were just great.”
