When 80-Lb Dog Collapses At Campsite, Teen Hikers Step In To Carry Him To Safety.

A father-son camping trip nearly turned tragic when their beloved dog injured his paws and was unable to walk. Utah resident Brett Peterson and his teen son decided to hit the trails with their large pooch, Otis, during their excursion. However, at some point in the trek, Otis managed to shred the bottoms of his paws, making it too painful for him to take another step. Although the two owners were able to get him back to the campsite, they were unsure of how to transport the 80-lb dog back to civilization along with all of their equipment.

“I was freaking out. I’m like, ‘How are we gonna get this dog out of here?'” Peterson said, according to KSL. “I wasn’t gonna just leave him, you know? We just didn’t know what else to do. It was just me and my son, and for us to try to carry him out with our backpacks and everything, it just would have been – it would have been horrible.”

Thankfully, they ran into another group of campers who were more than happy to help. An all-boys youth group from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, led by adviser Jeff Eaves, happened to be on a trip in the same area. All weekend, the young men had been learning about what it meant to serve others in their devotionals, a KSL video tells us. So, when Brett explained the trouble he was in, the group of 11 to 14-year-olds jumped into action.

Using tarp, zip-ties, and tree branches, the boys created a cot for Otis to lie in. Then, they put all their energy into carrying that cot along the remainder of the trail.

“It took hours, and it was super tiring because we had our backpacks on and the boys just had to keep rotating,” Jeff recalled.

However, despite the hard work, the boys maintained a positive attitude about the whole situation.

“It’s really easy with this group that we have because we’re so open and we don’t really think about ourselves – like, we were just thinking about the dog. We were just getting through it together,” said teen camper Blaine Robertson.

While the teens weren’t looking for anything in return for their efforts, they did get Brett’s gratitude.

“It was amazing because, if they weren’t there, I don’t know, I may still be stuck up there,” he said.

You can find the source of this story’s featured image here.