{"id":30629,"date":"2023-11-15T00:37:31","date_gmt":"2023-11-15T00:37:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/faithful-dog-found-with-owner-10-weeks-after-pagosa-springs-man-went-missing\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T07:22:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:22:36","slug":"faithful-dog-found-with-owner-10-weeks-after-pagosa-springs-man-went-missing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/faithful-dog-found-with-owner-10-weeks-after-pagosa-springs-man-went-missing\/","title":{"rendered":"Faithful dog found with owner 10 weeks after Pagosa Springs man went missing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=128787ad-3319-5157-b8e5-3ba8545f7917&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" alt=\"Blotter lights\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Blotter lights<\/span><span class=\"credit\">cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>A faithful dog survived for 10 weeks next to her owner\u2019s side after the 71-year-old man sat down next to a tree and died in the wilderness east of Pagosa Springs, according to law enforcement.<\/p>\n<p>Rich Moore and his dog, Finney, a white Jack Russell Terrier, were reported missing Aug. 19 near Blackhead Peak, about 12 miles east of Pagosa Springs, said Archuleta County Sheriff\u2019s Office undersheriff Robert Hill.<\/p>\n<p>Rescue workers searched by ground and air with no luck. In total, nine agencies searched for nearly 2,000 hours, Hill said.<\/p>\n<p>The big break came about 3 p.m. Oct. 30 when a hunter in the Lower Blanco drainage basin reported finding a deceased man and a white dog, Hill said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"naviga-map\"><iframe src=\"https:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?q=37.2894519%2C-106.7742026&amp;z=15&amp;output=embed\" width=\"100%\" height=\"400\" style=\"border:0;\" allowfullscreen loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Map\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n<p>The next day, members of the sheriff\u2019s office and Upper San Juan Search and Rescue were flown into the area and positively identified Moore. The team also located Finney.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen our first guy got there, the dog was right by Rich and was in the attack position, showing her teeth and verbally saying, \u2018Get the hell away from us,\u2019\u201d Hill said. \u201cSo yeah, she\u2019s a little survivor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Crew members transported the dog to a local veterinary hospital for examination and treatment. She lost about half her body weight, but was otherwise in good shape, Hill said.<\/p>\n<p>She has since been reunited with her family.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a little bittersweet,\u201d Hill said.<\/p>\n<p>Jack Russell Terriers were bred as hunting dogs and are able to survive on rodents. Hill suspects that\u2019s what Finney did until she was rescued. A nearby creek would have kept her hydrated, he said.<\/p>\n<p>There is no indication the dog ate Moore to stay alive, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of speculation about that, but we didn\u2019t see any sign of that,\u201d Hill said. \u201cWhat\u2019s remarkable is the area is loaded with bear and mountain lions. That\u2019s big-time cat country. And that dog survived. Pretty amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Law enforcement are uncertain about what happened to Moore.<\/p>\n<p>It is possible he became lost and disoriented while on a hike, but he also could have suffered a medical emergency like a heart attack. He was found sitting down leaning against a tree with his feet out in front of him, Hill said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was not on a trail and he was quite a ways away from a trail,\u201d Hill said.<\/p>\n<p>If he was lost or experiencing a medical emergency, he may have been trying to get to another point to access cell service, Hill said. Rescue workers were told he had a cellphone, but they didn\u2019t find a cellphone on his person.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe may have been using it for light and fell and dropped it in the dark,\u201d Hill said. \u201cWe just don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hill believes Moore lived in the Pagosa Springs area for \u201c20-ish years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Moore was \u201cvery active\u201d with an outdoor hiking club, Hill said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was happy, he was healthy (and he) made this hike a couple of times,\u201d Hill said. \u201cSo it was kind of a shock that he did disappear.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>No foul play is suspected, Hill said.<\/p>\n<p><em id=\"emphasis-7f48f7494b2750ec14a4c3be2fc437f0\"><a href=\"mailto:shane@durangoherald.com\">shane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>71-year-old man found dead in wilderness area; Jack Russell Terrier rescued and reunited with family<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[493,255,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-30629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-archuleta-county","tag-death-and-dying","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30629"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81145,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30629\/revisions\/81145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30629"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=30629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}