Hikers rescue dog from mountain

HATCHER PASS -- If Fefe could talk, her tale of woe would doubtless feature a vicious bear, aching hips and the horror of two days alone near the top of wild Baldy Mountain.

Fefe, a 15-year-old terrier who has lived with Lees Sherwood since she was a pup, got separated from him during an outing July 9 up the mountain. Sherwood said he was on a four-wheeler with Fefe riding in a box on the back of the bike, and she got loose while he was pushing his way through a bog.

Then a grizzly bear and her cubs showed up, so Sherwood had to give her a wide berth while trying to locate the dog. After searching some more, he still didn't find Fefe. He had to leave the mountain. "The worst part was not knowing what happened to her," he said. "I thought maybe the bear got her."

The next day he carried a rifle on a hike up the mountain and called out to Fefe near the spot where they were separated. "She's hard of hearing. I think she didn't hear me calling. And she has hip problems, so I couldn't picture her walking far."

The day after that, he chartered a Spernak Air plane and pilot to search the mountain. "I thought a little black dog would show up against the green background, but I was wrong. There are lots of dark shadows and bushes."

On the same day Sherwood flew over, Haakon Weydahl and his buddy, Joe Loyer, were up on Baldy Mountain. They spotted the little terrier about 150 feet down a ravine. "We didn't know what it was and thought maybe a coyote. So we watched it for a while, and saw that it was limping," Weydahl said.

The young men climbed down and got the dog. For the ride down, they put her on the back of Weydahl's four-wheeler. "When you see a dog lost like that, you can't just go off and leave it," he said. "She was weak, really limp. It took us four or five hours to get down the mountain because I steered with one hand and held on to her with the other to keep her from falling off the bike."

Weydahl named Fefe "Lucky," since he didn't know her real name and the title fit. He brought her home to Wasilla, gave her food and water, and within a day she cheered up.

The next task was finding her owner.

His mother, Susie Weydahl, placed a call to a Lusby, Maryland rabies clinic whose number was listed on Fefe's collar. That office told her the dog belonged to a Sherwood who had moved from Maryland to Alaska.

Weydahl, a librarian at the Wasilla Library, set to work on the Internet, copying off the names of all the Sherwoods in Alaska, which filled six pages. Then she started making calls. Jan Sherwood in Anchorage offered to make the Anchorage calls, since that wouldn't be long distance for her. She was the one who left a message on Lees Sherwood's recording machine. By then, Fefe had been missing four days.

"I received a call from Lees later Saturday night, after 11 p.m., and he was so excited that his dog had been found," Weydahl said. "Since he works at night, he said he would be out first thing in the morning. And he was, bright and early."

Sherwood, a line mechanic on jumbo jets at Anchorage International Airport, said he was extremely worried about the dog that had been with him most of her life. She often accompanies him on mountain jaunts, where he prospects for gold and just enjoys being outside. She has a hip problem that requires medication. She always suffered separation anxiety when Sherwood had to go to work, he said, which required him to hire dog sitters for her. "I kept having flashes of her in my thoughts, just not knowing what her fate was. I kept hoping she wasn't suffering."

Once before, Fefe got lost in Missouri, then again during a violent thunderstorm in Maryland. Those times taught Sherwood the value of the dog collar, and he recommends every pet owner be sure to have one.

The Mat-Su Borough Animal Care and Regulation shelter also recommends the insertion of microchips for recovery of pets. A $30 microchip from the shelter includes a lifetime registration with the Mat-Su Borough and, providing contact information is kept current with the registration provider, any vet or animal shelter with a microchip scanner -- now standard equipment -- can trace the animal to the owner. Microchips are also available at most veterinarian offices throughout Southcentral Alaska.

Sherwood was so grateful he gave Haakon a $100 reward, and his mother money for the long distance phone calls. On his way back to town, he stopped off at Burger King and bought Fefe sausage patties, which she promptly ate and then went to sleep.

"Now she is back to normal. She has a new attitude, and I have a whole new attitude," Sherwood said. "There were no wounds on her, but she lost weight and her coat is scruffy. I think next, I'll get her a summer haircut."