PORT HADLOCK — Echo returned home with her owner after she was rescued from a ledge below a cliff on Indian Island last weekend.
Echo, a 75-pound black Labrador mix, was walking with her owner, Mark Olson, on one of the public walking trails on the island Saturday morning when she apparently smelled an otter near the edge of a cliff, Olson told firefighters.
“She went after it,” Olson said, and fell to a ledge about 6 feet down.
East Jefferson Fire-Rescue received the call for help at 9:28 a.m.
A department firefighter, Curtis Sanders, was lowered to the ledge and attached ropes to the dog, the fire department said.
Crews above pulled the dog to safety without injury by 10:20 a.m.
The rescue took about a dozen people, with personnel from Port Ludlow Fire & Rescue, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and Naval Magazine Indian Island Station 91 assisting, said Deputy Chief Ted Krysinski with East Jefferson Fire-Rescue.
In any rescue, backup teams are necessary to man ropes and be ready to provide medical care if needed, he said.
“Rescuing an animal may seem like a low-priority call,” Krysinski said, “but we know how people feel about their pets and that most people will attempt to rescue them.”
That “can and does escalate the incident to a high-priority level,” he added.
“Mr. Olson did the right thing by calling us.”
