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Just a quick report with a happy ending. We set off on what was meant to be a relaxing day on a single Munro, Meall Ghaordaidh. However it turned out to be a rescue mission with a happy ending. Myself, Kyle and Marley had left the car at a late 10am in Glen Lochay. As we turned onto the hill road we noticed a sign pinned to the gate.......
the only problem with the sign is that there was no date on it so we did not know how long / old it was. Anyway thinking not much more about it we headed off on our way up the hill.
The weather was very changeable, one minute the t-shirt was on then the fleece and waterproofs. It was very blustery and quite cold as we neared the summit. We got to the top and dived into the large wind shelter to get out of the gale which was now blowing, we decide to have lunch and see if the clouds would lift. This was Kyle's aka "Wee Guy" 35th Munro, not bad for 7year old legs!
I was very chuffed for him as ever. Anyway we decided to head on down as it looked like it was not going to clear and we where both getting a bit cold. As we left the shelter Kyle spotted the "LOST" dog in the mist, I got Marley to go over to it and then it followed him back to us. We picked it up and it was wet through and shivering.
So we implemented operation rescue dog.
I stuffed it into my jacket, good job it was a small dog and got it out of the weather, we then descended quite a way to get out of the wind and rain. After finding some good shelter between some rocks we set about giving it some water and food.
It ate everything we had in our rucksacks including Marleys dog biscuits (Marley was no happy about that
). The dog had stopped shivering by this point so we thought it was best to push on down the hill. We carried it for quite a while and once on the level ground made it a temporary lead.
It then walked the last couple of Km's back to the car. Once back at the car I managed to get hold of the owners who where very emotional, I arranged to meet them at a hotel in Killin, they had a 2 hour drive to collect. So it was happy days!
I have never seen such happiness on peoples faces as when those dog owners saw there little pal. The dog had been lost in the hills for 5 days and 4 nights. They said it looked like it had lost a lot of weight! There where lots of hand shakes and thank you's, Kyle even managed a wee reward from them!
So that is a story with a happy ending, oh and I think Marley was glad to see the back of it!