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 6-month-old golden retriever whose disappearance had sparked a weeklong search in Pottsville, a community in eastern Pennsylvania's historic coal country, per the AP. Leiby had been on alert for the missing dog and finally found him Monday on Sharp Mountain—about 10 feet down the coal pit, too weary to make his way out.
"A tear came to my eye," says 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 says. "He was like, 'Get me home.'"
Owners 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 dog as the week wore on and temperatures dipped into the single digits in snow-covered Schuylkill County.
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"It was excessively cold," says 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." Freddy, who had weighed about 45 pounds, lost at least 10 pounds from the ordeal—a little the worse for wear but otherwise healthy.
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