Lost dog reunited with owner one week after she fell down a waterfall

Molly, a border collie, spent a week missing in remote New Zealand wilderness after her owner tumbled down a waterfall. (Precision Helicopters Ltd. via CNN Newsource)

When Jessica Johnston fell 180 feet (55 metres) down a waterfall in New Zealand, she was lucky to survive. She got even luckier a week later, when a helicopter crew found her missing dog Molly, shivering and alone, in the wilderness.

Molly, a border collie, had been hiking with Johnston across mountainous terrain in a remote area of the Arahura Valley on the west coast of the country’s South Island. Johnston had been posting photos to Facebook of their adventures, camping and traversing snowy mountain peaks.

However, when Johnston lost her footing atop a waterfall on March 24, she became separated from Molly. Rescuers arrived to take Johnston to hospital, but her loyal companion was nowhere to be seen.

News of the missing dog quickly spread in New Zealand and by Sunday thousands of dollars had been raised through a crowdfunding campaign by a helicopter company that offered to look for her.

“HUGE thank you to so many people who have donated to get a search underway for Molly the dog,” Precision Helicopters posted to its Facebook page. “Plan is to first search Tuesday in fine weather conditions with some sophisticated thermal imagery tech coming over from (Christchurch) and a good team of Volunteers.”

Enough money had been raised for three hours of flight time. And within that window, they miraculously found her, wet and cold, at the base of the waterfall.

“MOLLY HAS BEEN FOUND!!” they posted to Facebook.

Video showed a soaked Molly among a pile of rocks as a crewman picked her up and carried her to the helicopter.

On landing, Molly ran towards her owner in excitement as a visibly emotional Johnston, impeded by a cast on her right arm, slowly lowered herself to the ground to embrace the canine.

“She’s been (through) a bloody rough week. But with both of us back home I can add this adventure to the list,” Johnston wrote on her Facebook page Tuesday, adding: “Still a great trip before our lives got turned upside (down).”

Pilot Matt Newton said the mission to rescue Molly had been challenging and that the crew had tried to find the dog earlier, from the air.

“We’d been in the area on three occasions looking for her, with no luck,” he said.

The team then realized they needed better equipment, so they turned to a thermal imaging camera.

“Once we got the right people on board with that gear, and the perfect day for it, we hit the jackpot,” he recalled.

Newton believed Molly had survived by eating small animals, possibly possums – marsupials considered a pest in New Zealand.

He said Molly was already playing fetch with the crew as soon as she arrived at the helicopter base.

“She was in pretty good nick, a little bit subdued, but I think she looked like she knew she was being rescued,” he said.

Now that Molly is home, he wished Johnston the best.

“I think she’ll heal a lot better having the dog by her side,” he said.

By Chris Lau, CNN