Rescuing the Rescuer

St Bernards have the reputation of being great mountain rescuers.  They were originally bred to rescue people in the Swiss Alps.  Over the last weekend, there was a bit of a role reversal when a 4 year old St Bernard had to be rescued while descending Scafell Pike, England’s highest mountain.

As interesting as this was, it was the in-depth coverage in some of the media that particularly caught my attention.  Consider this extract from an amazingly detailed report in the The Telegraph:

Daisy the St Bernard had tackled England’s highest peak when she collapsed during the descent, and showed signs of suffering pain in her rear legs.

Taking advice from local vets, the Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team responded to a Cumbria Police call-out to retrieve Daisy before nightfall and bad weather descended on Scafell Pike.

The 16-strong team found their usual method of rescuing people was well-suited to the towering 121lb dog, and strapped the placid St Bernard on to a stretcher during the five-hour call-out.

Wasdale rescuers said the dog's cooperation was "essential" in the descent, and because Daisy was "so well behaved", the extraction went smoothly. The team said that there is no harm to the dog but it may be "slightly embarrassed" at having undermined the idea of St Bernards being masterful mountaineers.

When specialists arrived to bring it down from the mountain it was given painkillers and hoisted on to a "dog-friendly stretcher", quickly settling in for the journey after being coaxed with treats.

Daisy lay with its chin on the headrest of the stretcher for the trip down, with five or six people at a time needed to move the canine to safety. The rescue from the increasingly foggy peak was finally completed at 10pm, with the dog settling in for a night of rest and recuperation.

A spokesman for the Wasdale team said: "The adorable Daisy, who unfortunately had a hard start in life until she was rescued by her current owners a few months ago, has since been reported to have had a good night's sleep, snoring a little louder than normal, but back to her usual high spirits this morning."