Marathon Runner in Hawaii Heroically Rescues Dog From 1,000-Foot Cliff
A man in Hawaii is being heralded a hero after saving a dog that was lost high up in the mountains of Oahu. Sergio Florian was out for his evening run when he spotted a gray and white dog on a 1,000 cliff. Seeing that the dog was sickly, Florian didn't hesitate to make a decision — he was going to get the dog back down the mountain. No matter how hard it got.
Forty-four-year-old Florian is a marathon runner who trains about once or twice a week.
But he'd never seen anything like what he found on February 28, 2024.
"I was shocked to see her because I’ve never seen a dog up that high," he told The Washington Post. "She was in the most treacherous part of the trail, stuck between two cliffs, and it was almost sunset."
Related: Hiker Hailed a Hero for Rescuing Abandoned Little Ferret She Found on Trail
The dog was in rough shape. She was dehydrated, curled near the edge of the cliff. She had scratches all along her face and neck too.
In footage Florian took using a camera he typically uses to record his runs, you can see the moment he decided he was going to help.
"I'm going to get her down," the video, later shared on TikTok by ABC World News Tonight, shows him saying.
Florian saw that the dog was too weak to make it down the mountain by herself, so he lifted the pooch and carried her all the way down. He told The Post that he knew he'd have to carry her down the steepest parts of the four-mile trail. He estimated she weighed about 45 pounds.
“She was quivering and scared, and I could feel her warm little underbelly on my skin as I hooked my arm around her,” he recalled. “She seemed really tame and loving, but she was really weak, like she’d been up there for a while.”
It wasn't easy, but eventually Florian got the dog down and brought her home. It turned out that the dog's name was Stevie and she'd been missing for three days after taking off chasing after a wild pig.
In a stroke of good luck, another hiker had seen the dog before Florian had gotten to her. He couldn't get the dog down by himself so instead he wrote about the missing dog in the Oahu Hiking Community Facebook group. Florian's wife Dayane saw the posts circulating on social media and helped reconnect Stevie with her owners. They gave Stevie some food and water and then sent her on her way.
"I just did what anyone would have done if they could," he told ABC World News Tonight about the save. "Any time you're in a position where you're able-bodied and you're in a good place, and you can help someone, you should lend a hand," he added.
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