Dog left on mountain rescued

COLORADO (CNN/KUSA) - When a dog was stranded high on a Colorado mountain, it was a group of men that came to the rescue.

A photo started circulating on the Internet about a dog named Missy found abandoned near Mt. Bierstadt at 13,000 feet. The dog was injured too badly to walk, having been there for 8 days without food or water.

Chase Lindell and Alex Gelb, along with six others, only knew the dog from the photo, but they set out to find her. And find her they did.

"The dog seemed really weak and it couldn't move much at all. And given the terrain there was no way the dog was walking out of there. So, we were able to get the dog into a backpack," said one of the rescuers.

The rescue took nine hours and conditions were anything but good as a "full blown snowstorm" rolled in.

They took Missy to a veterinarian where she is being treated for injuries to her paws and dehydration.

When word of the dog's rescue got out, her owner came forward. He says he was hiking with the dog when she became injured with a storm approaching. He says he tried to carry the dog down the mountain, but couldn't so he left her behind, assuming she had died. Instead, Missy survived and now he wants her back.

The Clear Creek County Sheriff's Department is currently looking into who should keep the dog. It may not be a simple issue.

"This may be an animal welfare case, more than it is an animal legal case or property case. This is a case about an animal's welfare and it may come down to what the best interests of what the dogs standard would be," explained attorney Jennifer Edwards.

The original photo that sparked the rescue was taken by a hiker who found Missy by couldn't get her off the mountain by himself.