Dog Survives 40 Days Stranded In Mountains

SANTA CRUZ MOUNTAINS, Calif. (CBS) 

Buc seen shortly after his rescue.

Terina Held/CBS

A very strong-willed dog has returned to its owner after surviving 40 days in the freezing wilderness of the Santa Cruz Mountains, CBS station KPIX-TV reports.
Buck, a black lab, got lost near his home Jan. 6. Owner Terina Held thought he got swept up in a swollen river during a rain storm. Flyers went up and calls were made to shelters, but Held gave up after five weeks of searching.
"We figured he was probably dead or what not. Or someone fell in love with him and (they) weren't going to give him back," Held recalled.
But the story changed on Feb. 16 when neighbor Mark Smith took the day off to go hiking on his birthday. Smith and his dog Copper heard whimpering and found the weak, emaciated black lab stranded on a patch of dry river bed not far from where Buck went missing.
Smith scooped him up, waded 200 yards through an ice-cold creek, and carried Buck to safety.
"I would think that anybody who loves animals and was walking and seeing what I saw probably wouldn't have hesitated to do what I did," said Smith.

Buck lost 50 pounds as he lay in the cold without food for more than a month. Held is relieved to have her companion back at home.

"I know he knows that we love him, and maybe he didn't want to leave us hanging dry," said Held. "Maybe he wanted to make sure to give us more love before his dying day."

Amazing Rescue! Stranger Braves Stormy Waters to Save Dog!

I came across this story on http://www.peoplepets.com/ and my heart was warmed immediately.

"When Sue Drummond and her Maltese-Shih Tzu mix Bibi set off for a walk by the water in Melbourne, Australia, on Aug. 16, she had no idea that it could be Bibi's last. But with furious winds estimated at 60 mph, Bibi was suddenly blown right off the pier and into the rough waters below.

"I thought he was going to sink and then maybe I wouldn't be able to find him," Drummond told Australia's Courier Mail. "But I didn't really want to hop in the water either because I wasn't quite sure if I could Make it to shore with a struggling dog."

Drummond watched as Bibi helplessly tried to doggy paddle back to the pier. Then out of nowhere, a bystander named Raden Soemawinata striped down to his underwear and shirt and jumped in to save the pup. Soemawinata, 20, was on the pier for a family ceremony to scatter his grandmother's ashes when he saw the dog struggling and plunged in after him.

Though he's being hailed as a hero, Soemawinata says saving the dog wasn't especially brave. "It was pretty cold and windy but it wasn't such a hard decision to jump in" he told Australia's Daily Telegraph "It wasn't such a great feat.""

Story written by Andrea Desimone