PORT ANGELES — When a volunteer with the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue team literally went over a cliff to save a tiny dog last weekend, he and the rest of the team earned the respect of the dog’s owners — and a $1,000 thank-you.
Search and Rescue member Ed Phillips rappelled down the bluff face near a home in Port Angeles on Saturday to retrieve Bella, while fellow team member Parker Stoops tended the ropes and observed Phillips during the rescue.
The team pulled the 6-year-old female bichon frisé-Shih Tzu mix from a ledge 25 feet below the top of the bluffs that overlook the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
The 14-pound dog, who had been missing since Friday, was shivering and wet but unhurt, and went home with her family.
On Tuesday, Bella’s owners, Claire and Bonnie Gilstad, made a stop at the Clallam County Courthouse to thank Search and Rescue and handed Sheriff Bill Benedict a check for $1,000 — a donation to the Search and Rescue team.
“It was the least we could do,” said Bonnie on Thursday.
“We’re just so grateful — and they are all volunteers. We think it’s a wonderful thing they did.
“It meant so much to us.”
Benedict said the Gilstads’ $1,000 donation represents a 5 percent increase in the Search and Rescue budget — enough to make a substantial difference.
Volunteer team
“Search and Rescue is only funded at $20,000 per year,” Benedict said.
Members of the Search and Rescue team are volunteers, he said, and the funding is used to purchase safety equipment and pay for training.
“We are very grateful for the contribution,” Benedict said.
The Gilstads have owned Bella for two years.
They adopted her from a woman who was moving and couldn’t take the dog with her.
Bella went missing between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. last Friday, Claire said.
“We searched the whole neighborhood until dark and after dark,” he said.
“We couldn’t find her, no sounds, and we had to be up early in Seattle to pick up guests for Thanksgiving on Saturday morning.
“We thought that some animal had gotten her,” he said sadly.
Hours of searching
But they continued searching upon their return Saturday afternoon.
Bonnie heard a strange sound along the bluff, an area where Claire already had searched, he said.
“It didn’t sound like a bark, just something odd,” he said.
“She followed that sound . . . and by golly, there was our dog, 25 feet or so down.
“How she got down there, we have no idea.
“Apparently, she had been there all night in the rain and wind.”
Although Bonnie was ready to go down after Bella, Claire laughed, called 9-1-1 emergency dispatch and was grateful to see experts with all the necessary equipment arrive.
Search-and-rescue teams undergo specific training for the rescue of animals, Benedict said.
If a rescue is beyond the team’s training, equipment or ability, another agency with the right training and equipment, such as the Coast Guard or the Navy, can be called in, Benedict said.
As for Bella, “she’s fine, she’s absolutely fine — and sticking close by,” Claire said.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
Managing Editor/News Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3531 or at leah.leach@peninsuladailynews.com.
