Sheepdog Tímon Rescued From Ravine

Icelandic sheepdog Tímon had quite the misadventure this month when he first went missing on a hike with his owners and then fell down a six metre deep ravine.

On September 16th, the Icelandic sheepdog disappeared whilst on a hike with his owners in the Northeast of Iceland. In a Facebook post, one of the owners, Ágústa Ágústsdóttir, she describes how their search efforts had been fruitless with no amount of calling or treats revealing Tímon’s whereabouts.

“We did not think there was any chance of finding the dog again and just hoped that he would die a quick death,” she writes in the post. “We felt miserable to think that he might lie alive in a deep cold ravine and possibly wounded.”

It wasn’t until ten days later, when the owners braved another attempt, that they actually managed to pick up a sound in the strong winds. Moving closer to a fissure area, they describe how relieved little barks reached them, when Tímon recognised the voices of his owners.

Finding Tímon’s exact location was difficult, as the fissures were deep and they couldn’t see the bottom, until they found a small half-overgrown opening, called down and saw the little sheepdog appear under a stone slab he had lain under.

Reaching him was the next problem. Tímon’s owners saw themselves forced to part with him one more time to get the proper tools and equipment and a plan to get him out of the ravine before the sun set.

With the help of three local farmers, Helgi from Hjarðarás, his daughter Úlfhildur and her husband Raggi, Ágústa and her husband Kristinn returned to the trapped Tímon, cleared the opening, and Raggi climbed down a ladder they had brought to retrieve the dog.

Although hungry and skinny, Tímon was unharmed otherwise and could happily reunite with his family.

Photos by: Kristinn Steinarsson, Úlfhildur Ída Helgadóttir, Ragnar Skúlason

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