Sunday, January 22, Mariann Mendenhall and her husband traveled to Sherman Pass, near Republic, WA with a group from Inland Northwest Hikers to climb Columbia Mountain. Mariann usually hikes with her female bluetick hound, but she was in Portland at a dog show, so she took her 13 year old daughter, Sabrina's, 7 month old hound, Rebel, instead. The snow on the trail was chest deep on Rebel and each time he stepped off the trail he floundered around. Mariann took off his leash so that he could follow behind. Quickly her made his way toward the front of the hikers. When they reached their destination Rebel was nowhere to be found. They quickly headed back down the mountain to look for him. That began a search that would last two days and two heart wrenching nights. Rebel could not be found and the weather was getting much worse. How could a puppy who was raised to walk the show floor survive in the wilderness?
At Curlew Job Corps, a residential vocational training center for young men and women 16-26 years of age, the Forestry Technician instructor, Jim Beckwith, heard of the plight on Tuesday, January 24. He took ten students out to snowshoe the area. Mr. Beckwith held little hope that Rebel would survive, but was willing to gather MRE's for the students to eat and head to Sherman Pass (the highest maintained pass in Washington State)to find a little lost puppy. The Job Corps team soon ran into windy, blowing snow conditions. About a mile into the hike, the instructor found some tracks covered with fresh powder. He called out "Rebel!" and around the trail hobbled a very shy, frozen, pup. "He wouldn't have lasted another night." Beckwith reported. They gave him some MRE, which he gobbled down and two of the students went back to the Job Corps van to bring back the SKED rescue liter. "This is a rescue procedure we train our students for." said Beckwith. The students covered Rebel in several of their own coats and pulled him off the mountain. He was then loaded into the van and taken to All Cratures Veterinary, in Republic.
