Fifteen Hikers Help Injured Dog Get Off Mountain In 16 Hour Rescue

Bruno the dog is recovering after fifteen Good Samaritans came together to rescue him off of a New Hampshire mountain. Bruno had been out for a hike with his family on Mount Jefferson when he collapsed. His paws got badly cut up on the “hot” and “jagged” granite rocks along the trail and he could not walk any further.

Bruno’s owners put out a plea for help online and this prompted local volunteers to launch a rescue mission that would take about 16 hours and a big team effort.

“Once his paws got torn up he basically said, ‘Hey, I’m done walking, I’m done moving, I’ve had enough,’ ” Zippy, one of the volunteers, told NECN. “And he just sat down and refused to move any further.”

Bruno’s family was “fairly dehydrated” according to Zippy as they hadn’t prepared for an overnight stay. The team of dog rescuers had brought a harness, and slings and bandages for Bruno’s paws.

Footage and photos of the dog rescue reveal how difficult the terrain was to navigate while carrying the large dog.

“I picked him up and put him on my back with the harness and we made it like that, slowly but surely made it across, until we got to the Cap’s Ridge junction, when it got a little wider,” Zippy said. Six people at a time took turns carrying Bruno down.

Bruno was in “good spirits” and a very patient dog the entire time down the mountain despite the pain he was in. He is “on the path to recovery.”

“Bruno was just fantastic the whole time,” Zippy said. “There were a couple of times he would look at me and he would grumble if I touched his paw while I was bandaging it, but other than that, he would just lay there and [knew] we were there to help.”