SACRAMENTO, Calif. — If only dogs could talk, Miss Molly, a 12-year-old Red Fox Lab would have quite the adventure story to tell.
"Dogs like Molly need to be on a leash. Huh, Molly?" Lindsay Fisher asked her dog with a laugh.
Molly is safe now but on Sunday, Mother's Day, she spent the night on the side of a mountain lost and alone. A dog sitter was watching Molly and decided to take her on a hike up to the top of Sugar Bowl when Molly wandered off.
"While he was having lunch he noticed that Molly disappeared and he hiked for an hour and had access to snowmobiles and took that around the mountain for four hours and couldn't' find her," Fisher said.
The search was on to find Molly. Her owners were out of the country so that's why Fisher stepped in. Her sister, Allison Knox, is Molly's "mom."
Fisher decided to hike up Sugar Bowl, nearly 8,000 feet in elevation. She trusted her gut to check the back side of the mountain. In the silence, she heard a faint whimper.
"At first I thought it was the wind in the trees or a bird or something and then I heard it again," Fisher said.
So she kept calling Molly's name.
"I heard a few more whimpers and I knew for sure it was her," she said. "I went over to that side and heard a single bark. I went over there and she was back there."
Molly was stuck on the side of a cliff on the mountain. Fisher decided to get closer and wait with her for help to arrive. Several rescuers came up to help them get down and then at the bottom, the two shared a warm hug.
"I don't think I've ever had a more incredible feeling. That sense of relief," Fisher said.
The Fisher and Knox family wanted to thank many people to came to Molly's rescue. Fisher said she wanted to thank Courtney and Gregg with the Sugar Bowl team, the Tahoe-Truckee community, Fisher's dad, Mary Prince, Rob for driving their other dog Aspen up to the mountain, and an abundance of friends who dedicated their time to find Molly.
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