Hiker rescues pup from abandoned coal pit after frigid weeklong search in Pennsylvania

Joe Palko after he was reunited with his six-month-old Golden retriever pup named Freddy, a week after the dog ran off from his home at the base of Sharp Mountain in Pottsville, Pa. (Joe Palko via AP)

POTTSVILLE, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania hiker had followed his dog off a mountain trail this week when he glanced toward a deep coal pit below and saw a tail move near a pile of rocks.

Collin Leiby, an avid hiker and wedding photographer, locked eyes with the animal and knew it was Freddy, a six-month-old Golden Retriever whose disappearance had sparked a weeklong search in Pottsville, a community in eastern eastern Pennsylvania’s historic coal country. Leiby had been on alert for the missing dog and finally found him Monday on Sharp Mountain, about 10 feet (three metres) down the coal pit, too weary to make his way out.

“A tear came to my eye,” said Leiby, 33, who lives a few blocks from the dog’s home. “I started calling his name. He slowly got up and started walking toward us.”

Freddy made it partway up the icy side wall while Leiby reached down and grabbed him. He gave him water, clipped a spare leash on him and walked Freddy off the mountain alongside his dog, a pit bull mix named Bass.

“He was crying and jumping on me,” Leiby said. “He was like, ‘Get me home.’”

Pam and Joe Palko had pulled out all the stops since Freddy went missing on Feb. 17. They took to social media. They chased tips. They organized a posse of volunteers to distribute flyers in schools, churches and across town in Pottsville. They even hired a company that uses search dogs to track missing pets, and another that flew thermal drones overhead.

That helped rule some places out. But there was still no sign of the 6-month-old puppy as the week wore on and temperatures dipped into the single digits in snow-covered Schuylkill County.

“It was excessively cold,” said Pam Palko, a financial planner and mother of three. “We knew we would never give up, but the more that time went on throughout the week, our hopes were getting smaller.”

They were chasing one of many false alarms at a nearby animal shelter just before dusk Monday when Joe Palko got an alert from their home security camera. A stranger was at the door with Freddy. Then their neighbor called. They raced home.

“He just was a little frantic, hungry and confused,” said the neighbor, Dr. Carolyn Canizaro-Orlowsky, a retired veterinarian. “When they showed up, he started wiggling.”

The Palkos, whose children are 17, 20 and 22, had been especially heartsick after losing a beloved four-year-old dog last year to cancer. They had gotten Freddy not only for themselves, but to give their other Golden Retriever, two-year-old Harper, a new companion.

Freddy, who had weighed about 45 pounds (20 kilograms), lost at least 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms) from the ordeal, and is a little the worse for wear, but otherwise healthy. The Palkos are grateful for that, and for the community that went to such lengths to reunite them.

“There’s a big collective sigh of relief,” said Canizaro-Orlowsky. “It’s a neat lesson not to give up.”

The Associated Press