Hiker survives 180-foot fall down a waterfall — a week later, her dog is waiting there
Jessica Johnston was hiking in New Zealand with her dog, Molly, when the unthinkable happened: Johnston slipped and fell 180 feet down a waterfall.
When a crew showed up to rescue Johnston, Molly was nowhere to be found. The area where the pair had been hiking was incredibly remote, and the chances of finding Molly seemed slim. But when Lillian Newton of Precision Helicopters learned of the situation, she decided she had to try and help.
“I was only [told] by a friend that Molly was missing,” Newton told The Dodo. “No one ever asked me to look for her, but I just took it on my own initiative.”
With Johnston’s permission, Newton and her company began raising money to cover the costs of taking a helicopter out to look for Molly. Within eight hours, they raised five times the amount they’d been aiming for. Everyone everywhere was invested in finding Molly and getting her home safe.
Newton gathered up a team of volunteers, including a woman with a thermal camera to help with the search, and they flew a helicopter out to the spot where Molly went missing. They figured it was a smart move to start there, and it was the best decision they could have made.
Molly was sitting on some rocks under the waterfall where her mom had fallen. She’d been missing for a week, but somehow she was completely OK.
“The dog’s condition was perfect,” Newton said.
The volunteer rescue team lured Molly over with a treat, scooped her up and carried her to safety. When Johnston learned that Molly had been found, she was overjoyed. She’d sustained some injuries from her fall, but knowing her beloved pup was safe made her recovery journey much easier.
None of the people who rescued Molly knew her or her mom before the whole ordeal. They were just a group of people who cared and wanted to help, and because of them, Molly and her mom are reunited at last.
“[It's] been a bloody rough week,” Johnston wrote on Facebook. “But with both of us back home, I can add this adventure to the list.”
