Two RCMP officers are being praised by a local family for rescuing their dog from a ravine in Williams Lake Monday.
Bev Bradshaw said their five-year-old dog, Tucker, became stuck on a ledge about half way down a steep 400-foot embankment above the Williams Lake River Valley on Sunday.
Her husband, Brett, had taken Tucker with him to the scrap yard on Frizzi Road.
“Tucker took off chasing a raven or something and never returned,” Bev said.
Throughout Sunday Brett and Bev took turns looking for Tucker, but they could not find him.
Bev said he never barks.
On Monday, Bev’s stepson Cody Bradshaw and his girlfriend, Jessica Armstrong, returned to the River Valley to look for Tucker and spied him up on the embankment.
At first the family tried to retrieve the dog themselves with ropes borrowed from Bev’s parents, but they were having no luck.
“Brett got within 50 feet of Tucker but every time he moved closer rocks were falling on him, and Tucker was just whining.”
In desperation, Bev called the RCMP for help and very quickly Const. Will Gale arrived on the scene.
Once he assessed the situation, Gale called in Const. Joshua Cropley, who as luck would have it, had just finished taking a rappelling course a few weeks ago because he’s a member of the detachment’s emergency response team.
After anchoring himself to a tree, Cropley rappelled down to Tucker.
“It was really steep and the poor dog was stuck on a ledge above a cliff,” Cropley said Tuesday.
“I didn’t know if he was going to bite me, but when I reached him I realized he wasn’t going anywhere on his own. He was too scared.”
Cropley clipped Tucker into a lanyard, and the two side-sloped along the ledge until Cropley found a deer trail they could walk down.
Once they reached the bottom, Cropley walked Tucker over to the creek so he could get a drink, and then brought him up to reunite with his family.
“It was just amazing,” Bev said of the RCMP’s efforts. “They definitely deserve recognition for the compassion they showed to an animal.”
Tucker is a Rotweiller English Bull Dog and has been with the Bradshaws for a year. Bev said he is very close to their 10-year-old son Cody Hurren.
On Tuesday Tucker was off to the vet for a checkup because his right back leg was very stiff and sore.