Chopper pulls lost dog off ledge

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 9 (UPI) -- A Bernese Mountain dog trapped on a narrow ledge in the mountains near Vancouver in western Canada was rescued by helicopter.

The 18-month-old dog had been missing for 15 days when a hiker saw it Thursday afternoon on a ledge more than 1,500 feet above sea level and about 10 feet wide, The Vancouver Sun reported. North Shore Rescue pulled it off the ledge, dropping an aerial team on a rope who strapped him into a harness and pulled it up.

The dog, named Hurley, was being cared for by a dog service while his owners were on vacation in Hawaii. It ran off the day before they returned.

"He was 115 pounds when he went up there and he's down to 90 pounds. He'll definitely be getting T-bone steak tonight," Darwin Schandor, the owner, told the Sun.

Schandor said the owner of the dog service joined him in the search, spending hours in the mountains.

"It has been tough these past two weeks," Schandor said. "Every day my kids would go to bed crying and it was the hardest thing to do to walk out each night without Hurley."