A Kaohsiung man owes his life to one of his dogs, which ran 1.5km home to alert the man’s family that something was amiss.
The 59-year-old man, surnamed Hsiao (蕭), was hiking up a mountainside in Cishan District (旗山) on Monday evening when he fell into a ravine.
The return home of Duo Duo (多多) without Hsiao and her agitated barking, led the family to call the emergency services.
Photo: Huang Chia-lin, Taipei Times
Duo Duo led firefighters back to where Hsiao had fallen, helping save him from hypothermia.
Hsiao told authorities that he went up the mountain because he was concerned that heavy rain could damage the privately installed water pipes that carry spring water to his home.
Hsiao said he took his five dogs with him on his walk, including Duo Duo, who had been adopted five years ago from a litter of a friend’s dog.
While climbing up a path at about 8:30pm, he slipped in the mud and fell, rolling down a slope and into a stream, he said.
Realizing that he could not move after the fall and that he was half-submerged, he told his dogs to “go home and get help.”
Duo Duo took off immediately, Hsiao said, adding that she is the fastest runner of the five.
Family members said Duo Duo returned home at about 9pm in an agitated state and was “barking crazily at anyone she saw.”
The family became alarmed and called the police, telling them that an accident might have occurred.
Firefighters said that they and Hsiao’s family members were guided by Duo Duo through rough terrain, arriving at Hsiao’s location at about 11:30pm.
He was at the bottom of a 3m-deep ravine, immobilized from hard knocks to his spine that he suffered during his fall and close to hypothermia, the firefighters said.
Lin Yi-shou (林益收), commander of the firefighting unit, said that Hsiao’s four other dogs were guarding their owner and at first reacted aggressively to the rescuers.
One of the four tried to bite a firefighter on the calf until Hsiao yelled at it to stop. The dogs stopped barking and moved aside so the firefighters could reach Hsiao.
Rescuing Hsiao was difficult because of the swiftness of the stream, driving rain and limited light, Lin said, adding that parts of the winding mountain path had collapsed, and had to be cleared and repaired by firefighters before Hsiao could be moved off the mountain.
Hsiao is now recovering at home and appears to be in good health, he said.
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