When single mom Tia and her 76-year-old father set out on a hike up into the mountains last July, they never expected that they would have another guest accompanying them on their way back down. However, that is exactly what happened.
The two were about three hours into their trek when they happened upon an injured dog laying on the side of the trail.
The dog’s owners were nowhere to be found.
Upon closer inspection, Tia and her father discovered that the poor pup had sustained some massive injuries, and sadly, was no longer able to walk.
The pooch had literally been abandoned in the wilderness and left to die.
However, Tia and her father weren’t about to let the animal depart from this world without a fight.
Despite the fact the dog weighed 55 pounds, she decided right then and there that she was going to transport the injured dog out of the mountains and back to safety.
Sometimes danger and being exposed to extreme circumstances kicks our bodies into a gear that we never knew was possible.
That is what Tia must have felt like as she hoisted the massive dog onto her shoulders and began the long hike back to the village below. She knew the dog wouldn’t be able to make it down the steep mountain on its own, thus she was forced into action.
For the next six hours, Tia used all her strength to carry the 55-pound pup down to the base of the mountain.
It was an extremely impressive feat that all of us can appreciate it.
“We decided that I would carry him down and look for help. He was pretty beat up, so he couldn’t walk,” Tia said in an interview on the Pickler and Ben YouTube Channel.
“It was one the hardest things I’ve done in my life,” said Tia.
The interviewers joked that she must have really strong quads and Tia laughed and agreed. It turns out, she used to be a gymnast so intense physical exercise was nothing new for her. Yet, carrying a huge dog like that for six hours down a mountain is no small feat.
At one point in the interview, they show a picture of Tia laying on a rock with the dog sitting on top of her.
They asked her what was going on in the photo and she explained that she was just completely exhausted.
“I was really dead. I wanted to stop. I wanted to quit. I was almost in tears. You know, every time that I would set him down I would have to squat all the way down to my bum and then lay down so I could let him down gently so that I wouldn’t injure him anymore,” said Tia.
Yet, Tia kept going anyway, despite the fact that her legs “felt like they were going to crumble at any moment.”
She saved the dog’s life that day!
Later on, she was able to track down the dog’s owners and got more details of what had happened. They told her that the dog had slipped on a snow crevice and fallen off a 100-foot cliff. They then watched the pup roll another 200 feet, and at that point, they pretty much just assumed the pup was dead. Yet, the strong dog somehow managed to survive.
Tia did add, though, that dog’s recovery was not easy.
He had to spend six weeks in a cast and then needed surgery in his paw to fuse the joint back together. The dog’s ligaments were also ruptured.
Although, luckily, the dog, which she has since named Boomer, is now doing great. It really is such a crazy and inspiring story and our thanks go out to Tia for sharing it with us.
Watch the full video of Tia’s interview with Pickler and Ben below.
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
