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Summit County crew rescues dog in distress on Ute Pass Trail

Summit Daily staff report
news@summitdaily.com

A rescue crew of 10 people spent three hours Sunday saving a 9-year-old canine on Ute Pass Trail after the dog started suffering from life-threatening, internal medical issues, according to the Summit County Rescue Group.

The dog, whose name is Roscoe, is said to be recovering at an animal hospital and about to be reunited with his owner.

Roscoe was not injured on the trail, but rather began showing signs of distress along the way. He and his owner, who is originally from Arizona but a frequent visitor to Summit County, were about 2.5 miles into the Ute Pass Trail, where cellphone service is unreliable, when something started looking wrong with the dog.



The owner managed to get a call out, according to the rescue group, and it went to Grand County Dispatch before being passed on to Summit County where a number of the members of the rescue crew live.

Summit County Rescue Group responded to the call by sending out a crew of 10 people, who found the owner and her dog on the trail before carrying Roscoe out on their shoulders.




Roscoe was later transferred to a stretcher on loan from Summit County Animal Control and taken to a vet in Wheat Ridge where he underwent emergency surgery to have his spleen removed and his stomach untwisted.

The owner said Roscoe had not shown any symptoms before Sunday’s scare. Altogether, the rescue concluded after about three hours. It was the second dog rescued on a Summit County’s trail in as many weeks.

“A large number of our members are dog owners, and we are all dog lovers,” said Charles Pitman, a spokesman and mission coordinator for the Summit County Rescue Group. “We have no problem in getting several members to respond in a situation such as this.”