It Was A Cliff-Hanger For Both Dog, Rescuers Animal Control Officer Overcomes Fear Of Heights To Save Stranded Puppy

Talk about a lucky dog.

A black puppy was rescued off a ledge of a cliff near Riverside State Park this week by a park ranger and an animal control officer who overcame her fear of heights.

After all that trouble, county animal control officials say there’s no way they’ll euthanize the shepherd-Labrador mix.

Cliff earned his name Wednesday on a ledge of a 300-foot-cliff west of the Spokane River, overlooking the Bowl and Pitcher area in northwest Spokane.

He escaped injury despite falling or sliding 50 feet below Indian Bluff Road, landing on a 5-foot-wide ledge.

Animal control officer Nancy Sattin and park ranger Mark Perry climbed through 250 feet of loose rock and brush to bring him down.

Cliff, 9 months old, goes up for adoption Monday.

“I am not putting it to death,” said Marianne Sinclair, animal control director for the county. “I don’t care if it’s here until I retire.”

On Wednesday, about 2 p.m., Lynn Bowen took out her binoculars to investigate “a black blob” that she saw from her balcony on Indian Bluff Road.

“My God,” she said, “that’s a dog. How’d he get up there?”

Bowen called animal control, and Sattin responded.

“It was kind of pathetic,” Sattin said of the dog. “It was scared to death.”

Sattin first thought the dog could be retrieved by descending from the top of the cliff. But she couldn’t get any rappelling equipment or help from the county, the fire department or even outdoor equipment stores.

So, carrying a snare and a muzzle, Sattin and Perry made their way up to the stranded dog, pausing occasionally to rest. Sattin said she was still sore after running Bloomsday.

Once Sattin got on the ledge, she put her back up against the bluff. Then she made a mistake she wouldn’t repeat: She looked down.

Sattin, who had never climbed rocks before, said, “I don’t particularly like heights. I won’t even go up on our roof.”

But she thought to herself, “I’m not gonna leave until I get the dog.”

The dog growled at the rescuers, but had enough sense not to back away to the edge, she said.

“I went fishing, so to speak, to get the loop over the dog’s head.”

On the way back down, the dog balked at certain points.

“He hunkered down,” Perry said, “and we literally had to lift him over obstacles.”

Sattin took the dehydrated, hungry dog home with her for the night. He had no identification, but seemed as though he had recently been someone’s pet, she said.

“By morning,” Sattin said, “he was like my long-lost buddy.”