Wow!!! is about all you can say to this.....
storylast updated: 5/19/2004
Dog Survives 35 Days in Desert Pit
Animals & Oddities.
TEMECULA, Calif. (AP) _ This Shadow knows. How to survive 35 days in a 30-foot-deep pit in the desert, that is.
Stephen Schwartz, 17, was hiking with his brother, father and two cousins on April 18 near the ghost town of Panamint City on the western edge of Death Valley National Park when their dog, Shadow, fell into the pit.
The Schwartzs heard 10-year-old Shadow whimpering and tried to use a ladder from a nearby ranger station to reach the dog. But the ladder fell out of reach and eventually, Shadow stopped responding to their calls.
Thinking the
cocker spaniel-beagle mix was dead, the Schwartzs placed an improvised wooden cross over the pit, said a prayer and returned home to Trona, a tiny town in far northern San Bernardino County.
But Shadow was very much alive, surviving on water at the bottom of the hole.
On Sunday, brothers Scott and Darren Mertz were searching for the source of a spring near Panamint City when they stumbled on the 4-foot-wide pit. Stopping to rest, the brothers tossed rocks into the pit and dared each other to climb inside. Then they heard barking.
"We looked at each other and my brother said, 'Is that coming from the hole?"' Scott Mertz, 36, said. "We were just horrified that there was a dog down there."
"We weren't going to leave without the dog," said Darren Mertz, 34.
Using an old hose from a nearby water storage tank, Darren Mertz lowered his brother into the hole until he could reach the ladder and climb down to the dog. Scott Mertz managed to grab a frightened and skinny Shadow and his brother hauled them back up.
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What an amazing story
'Berry 4ever in my 
RIP 5/27/91-4/4/05
Poor baby. I hope he recovers o.k.
Capn, the dog was 10 years old, that's what they were saying. 
