DENVER (CNN/CBS ATLANTA) -
A dog was abandoned on a mountain and survived without food or water for eight days.
The dog, called Missy, was rescued after a picture of her hit the Internet.
It was taken by a hiker who went up the same Colorado Mountain, but couldn't get close enough to rescue the dog alone.
A group of eight people, brought together by the picture posted online, decided to go and get her.
"The dog seemed really weak and it couldn't move much at all," said Chase Lindell, one of Missy's rescuers. "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."
The rescue took nine hours in the middle of a fierce snowstorm, but they all made it back down the mountain.
Missy was taken to a vet and got treatment for injuries to her paws and dehydration.
But when word of the rescue got out, guess who came calling? Missy's owner.
He wants her back.
"Absolutely not, absolutely not," said Lindell.
"I mean, eight days passed, I mean, that's a lot of time. It's kinda hard to get your head around," said Alex Gelb, another one of Missy's rescuers.
The owner says Missy's paws became injured while they were hiking, and he couldn't carry her alone.
He tried lowering her with ropes, but they only hurt her more. So he left her and tried to send up a search and rescue team, but they said it was too risky for a dog.
Missy's rescuers don't want to give her back.
The sheriff is now looking into who should get the dog.
Copyright 2012 CNN. All rights reserved. WGCL-TV contributed to this report.
Source: CNN
