A Blind Dog Was Rescued From the Woods After Being Lost for Eight Days

A blind dog has been reunited with its family after being found by some local hikers in the woods.

Firefighters Vincent Lopez and Dan Estrada were hiking in the San Lorenzo Valley in California when they stumbled upon Sage. She is a 12-year-old blind dog who was very lost in the woods. The two hikers thought that another animal had hurt the dog, but luckily Estrada recognized her and knew she was just blind.

There had been a major search effort to find the dog, yet she was nowhere to be found in the neighboorhood. Her owners even hired professionals to search for her when she didn’t return home after eight days.

“Our neighbors and other members of the community helped us search day and night for a week,” Beth Cole, Sage’s owner, said to The Mercury News. “We looked everywhere.”

Estrada’s rescue dog plays with Sage, so he knew the dog was missing.

Once Estrada put the pieces together, he quickly carried Sage out of the woods. He then called his wife, who in turn called Sage’s owner to share the good news.

“I started hugging her, it was overwhelming — so moving,” Estrada told Fox News.

Estrada then drove Sage to the vet where they found out she was malnourished and had a fever. Thankfully, she made a full recovery and is back to her old self.

“If dogs could smile I think she was smiling at the time,” Estrada told San Francisco television station KPIX.

The community welcomed back Sage with a little celebration. Neighbors cooked the dog steak and gave her a bunch of treats.

As a thank you for finding Sage, Cole offered Estrada and Lopez a $1,000 reward. The pair turned down the reward and suggested donating the money to charity instead.

Sage taught Dan Estrada an important lesson.

“Sage definitely taught me a lesson of hope and a lesson of never to give up. I mean, it’s something that we train to do all the time,” Estrada told KPIX.

Your Daily Dish has reached out to Dan Estrada for a comment 

(H/T A Plus)