Tia Vargas carried a 55-pound dog named Boomer a mile down an Idaho mountain pillar earlier this month after the dog was injured in a heartwarming story of survival.
Vargas, a 40-year-old single mom, was hiking Table Rock in Idaho with her father, Ted Kasper, on July 5 when they came across Boomer outside of Driggs around 8:40 a.m., EastIdahoNews.com reported.
Table Rock Trail is a 3.7-mile loop trail located near Boise, Idaho, where hikers travel mostly from March until November, but dogs are supposed to be kept on a leash, according to the website Alltrails.com.
"After a while, I saw some people walking a dog up and they asked if he was mine," Vargas told EastIdahoNews.com. "He was limping so bad and a lot of times would just lay there and not want to move at all."
Fellow hikers on the path told Vargas that someone posted a note at the bottom of the mountain mentioning a lost animal. That is when Vargas decided to take matters into her own hands.
"I picked up the dog, put him on my shoulders and carried him down to where my dad was," Vargas told the East Idaho News. "He laughed and said, 'You don't think this hike is hard, enough so you have to pick him up and carry him down?'"
Vargas, with Boomer on her shoulders, and her father got lost twice as they fought the rain and sharp weeds along their journey to the bottom of the mountain.
"There came a point where I was on the verge of tears thinking, 'I have to get this dog off. I can't do this anymore,'" Vargas told the East Idaho News. "I had a headache, my neck hurt, my legs were in pain — I just didn't think I could go on."
"I said a prayer and literally felt that somebody walked up behind me and lifted the dog off my shoulders. I felt that my ancestors or God sent me angels to help me carry that dog because it's like the weight was gone off my neck. I kept looking behind me to see who had lifted the dog up, but he was still there," she continued.
Around 6 p.m., more than nine hours after she started the hike, Vargas, her father, and Boomer the English Springer Spaniel arrived at their truck, where she found the note left for Boomer and drove the dog home.
Boomer's owner told Vargas that the dog wandered away while they were taking a Fourth of July hike, EastIdahoNews.com stated.
"He walked out onto a snow crevice, lost his footing and fell 100 feet before rolling 200 feet," Vargas said of the dog. "They went to find him, but he was gone. They assumed he had climbed under a bush and died because there's no way he could have survived that. He's a miracle dog."
Boomer was diagnosed with a few torn ligaments after being examined by a veterinarian, EastIdahoNews.com reported.
Boomer's family, which had planned on selling the dog to someone else, offered him instead to Vargas after her efforts.
"I have no doubt that God put me there," Vargas told the East Idaho News of the hike. "He's supposed to be in our family. He's not a quitter and I'm so glad I was there that day. We're all here to help each other and I'm just glad I can help."
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