Happy Ending for Dog Stranded In Tree After Hurricane Helene

The Kingsport Fire Department (KFD) announced a happy ending for a dog who went missing in Tennessee during Hurricane Helene.

On Oct. 2, the KFD’s Technical Rescue Team, along with the Murfreesboro Police Department, found a pitbull named Athena stranded in a tree 20 feet above the ground. Appropriately, it was one of the police department’s canine officers who alerted the rescuers to Athena’s location. Officer Angela Alexander reported that her K9 Kari began "barking uncontrollably and led the search team to a tree."

"The funny thing about Kari is she is not fond of other dogs but this time it was different,” Alexander explained. “I'm so proud of her helping to find something good in all the devastation caused by the flooding."

After determining the best way to extract Athena, Alexander and other rescuers approached her cautiously to make sure not to spook her off of her precarious perch. Luckily, the pup was "happily removed from the tree" before being fed and given water by her rescuers.

Shortly after, Athena was reunited with her grateful owners. All told, the pooch spent nearly a week on her own after becoming separated during the storm on Sept. 27.

Athena's owners were able to watch the heartwarming footage of her rescue on social media before she was returned to them. It marked an emotional high point for the family, who just days earlier had suffered the devastation of losing their entire home to the storm.

"A bunch of debris pushed up against my font porch,” Athena’s owner, TJ Faulkner, said. “It was metal steel beams. It collapsed my front porch. When it done that, it just pushed my house and it floated like an arc."

When TJ’s wife, Allie, saw footage of Athena’s rescue, she recalled: "I was weeping, I was laughing. I was so happy."

"It's like another member of our family, it's like another child," TJ added. "She means a lot to us."