Wednesday morning, a dog that had been missing for several days howled at the perfect time. However, rescuers claim it was a remarkable rescue in more ways than one.
Ginger is her name. Brenda Osborne, who lives in the Ulysses region of Lawrence County near the Martin County boundary, adopted her as a stray 12 years ago.
Before leaving town for the weekend, she and her husband gave Ginger and their other three dogs a treat on Friday morning.
When they returned home on Sunday night, they discovered she had gone. They weren’t concerned until Monday morning when she was still gone.
They did everything they could to help, including calling neighbors and walking up and down the Levisa Fork near their house. Darrell Perkins, Osborne’s next-door neighbor, and brother were among the searchers.
“She’s the neighborhood dog,” Perkins explained. “Everyone adores her.”
They didn’t hear anything, though. In fact, they assumed she had been picked up by a stranger or had walked off and died.
“Perkins stated, “She wasn’t making any noise at all.” “We didn’t expect her to be down here.”
But fast forward to Wednesday morning, when Perkins was getting into his truck when he heard howling down by the river at just the correct time. He tracked down Ginger by following the noise.
“She was OK until she saw me,” Perkins remarked. “Then I became a little worried.” I knew I had to get her out of there as soon as possible.”
He then dialed a series of frantic phone calls until he reached Lawrence County Dog Warden Johnny Rickman, the man in the video, who utilized Perkins’ harness because the bank was far too high.
When Osborne received the call from her brother, she said she couldn’t believe it.
“‘Brenda, I found Ginger,’ I assumed something bad had happened to her until he added, ‘And she’s alive, found her on the riverbed.’ I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Believe me, I couldn’t get anything done at work.”
Ginger was a stray puppy when Osborne adopted her in 2006 when she was just a few months old.
“I suppose you could say she’s one of the grandkids,” she replied.
Rickman claimed that he was simply doing his job.
“I didn’t stop to think about it; I immediately put on the harness and walked down to get her.”
Ginger’s whereabouts are unknown.
Perkins believes she slid down the bank on Saturday, injured her leg, and has been stuck since then.
She’s been to the vet since Thursday afternoon. She’s eaten and drank, but she’s too weak for a bath or X-rays.