Hobo, a deaf 8-year-old Australian Shepherd, is going to be kept on a very short leash from now on after surviving a 100 foot fall and an hourslong rescue to save his life.
The elderly dog was out on a walk with owner Julia Plant near his family’s property in Sorrento, California, at around 2 p.m. on Monday afternoon, Plant told ABC News’ San Diego affiliate KGTV in an interview, when he suddenly saw something and darted toward it.
“It was only about six feet and he turned around to come back up the hill and lost his back leg footing, and the next thing I know he went over backwards,” Plant told KGTV.
Hobo ended up falling approximately 100 feet down a steep hill and into a ravine down below, according to a statement from the San Diego Humane Society, who spearheaded Hobo’s rescue after receiving a call for help from Plant when she realized there was no way she could traverse the terrain to rescue the dog herself.
“It was just not a good situation where the dog was, not for people or animals. It was in a very secluded ravine and there was a big drop off just below that,” Lt. Clint Ganus, of San Diego Humane Society Disaster Response, said, according to KGTV.
The Emergency Response Team from the San Diego Humane Society sprang into action.
“One of our Humane Officers responded to the scene first, climbing down loose rock to reach the dog,” said the San Diego Humane Society. “Realizing the hike up was too steep and dangerous, our officer called for backup.”
Members of the ERT Technical Response Unit immediately rushed to the scene for support and set up safety lines so that they could rappel down the steep terrain to rescue the elderly animal.
“Five team members were required to cut the dog free from brush with a saw before securing him for the climb up,” the Humane Society said.
Hobo was uninjured in the fall but the entire rescue operation ended up taking a total of four hours.
“When you get a win and you see the whole team happy and the animal owner with a big smile on their face,” Ganus told KGTV. “You do what you do, you go to bed and you’re happy with what you do.”
Sadly for Hobo, Plant said she is going to be keeping an extra eye on him from now on.
“I’m going to keep him on this very short lead. And then the irony of this all, we’re in the process of putting up a fence just because of him,” Plant told KGTV. “It was a miracle. I mean thank God for the Humane Society.”