He deserves a round of a-paws.
A K-9 and his handler rushed to the rescue last week of an 85-year-old woman who spent two hours clinging to a tree in a Colorado ravine.
Dramatic video of the mission shows Mercury and Greenwood Village Police Officer Austin Speer picking up the woman’s scent just minutes after stepping onto the scene.
Mercury — affectionately called Merc by Speer — took off running along the grassy knoll as his handler fired off a series of “good dog!” affirmations.
The pair weave through several trees until they spot the missing woman “clinging to a tree down a steep ravine where she could not be seen from the roadway or canal,” the Greenwood Village Police Department said.
“Hi, ma’am. This is a friendly dog. He found you. Isn’t that good?” Speer tells the woman as Mercury eagerly approaches her.
“We’re going to get you home, ok?”
According to her son, the unnamed woman had been missing for two hours — but the dynamic duo sniffed them out within just 10 minutes.
“This is my mom and I am so grateful for Mercury and Officer Speer, the kind and professional dispatch gal I spoke with and all involved on this team effort to save my mom who was ‘gassed out’ after trying to climb this hill and unable to move,” the son said on Facebook.
“I had been searching for her for two hours and Mercury and Officer Speer found her in 10 minutes: UNBELIEVABLE! It was like watching a Navy Seal extraction: I am so grateful to live in City of Greenwood Village Government.”
The woman was returned safely to her family, police said.
The heroic pup joined the Greenwood Village Police a year and a half ago and was specifically trained for searching and tracking missing persons, as well as sniffing out narcotics.
