Three dogs saved after roaming Angeles National Forest for weeks

‘Even though they are still very skittish some trust has been established and George, Gracie & Stevie are super excited to see us when we arrive. They talk to us, bark at us, follow us and can’t wait to be fed.’

Update post from Dog Days Search & Rescue

LOS ANGELES — Over a few weeks in April, a dedicated group of people — volunteers from the Simi Valley-based Dog Days Search & Rescue, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies and the sheriff ’s department’s Montrose Search and Rescue Team — came together to save three abandoned Cane Corsos seen wandering in Angeles National Forest.

Hikers and others had reported seeing the dogs to deputies at the Crescenta Valley sheriff ’s station, but no one from the station or the Montrose Search and Rescue Team could ever get close enough to capture the dogs.

Dog Days Search & Rescue said in a post on its Facebook page that it first learned of the dogs in early April. The group spent much of April visiting the dogs, feeding them, talking to them and helping them to get used to people.

The group also provided frequent updates about the dogs on its Facebook page.

Dog Days Search & Rescue visited the dogs daily, first establishing a scent trail to the food to remind them there was food readily available and of the location of the shelter.

On April 7, a volunteer trekked up the mountain area, taking the dogs a “juicy steak” and food scent items.

Before the animal rescuers came, the dogs had been scavenging for food, eating trash and gravel.

“Even though they are still very skittish some trust has been established and George, Gracie & Stevie are super excited to see us when we arrive,” Dog Days Search & Rescue said in its April 24 post. “They talk to us, bark at us, follow us and can’t wait to be fed.”

The group outlined in a later Facebook post about the extensive plan it had to put in place to get the dogs off the mountain:

At 5,300 feet elevation, the group built a temporary enclosure: 14 kennel panels with a soccer net roof to catch all three dogs safely.

“It also had to be away from the busy highway turnout they were frequenting,” the group said in its Facebook post April 27. “Building this would normally not be a problem but throw in a mountain, some steep ravines, thorny bushes and climbing up a hillside to find a flat, safe area to do it was a whole new challenge. But we did it!!”

Jo Ann DeCollibus, co-founder of Dog Days Search and Rescue, said the three dogs were taken to a boarding facility where they’re being monitored and hand fed special meals four times a day.

The thing that saved their lives, she said, was the persistence of animal lovers who didn’t give up.

“It’s a feel-good story,” DeCollibus said.

DOG DAYS SEARCH & RESCUE Before the animal rescuers came, three Cane Corsos had been scavenging for food, eating trash and gravel while living in Angeles National Forest for weeks.