12-Year-Old Boy Scout’s Savvy Skills Rescue Lost Couple, Injured Dog on Hawaii Hiking Trail

A Hawaiian boy scout helped save a lost couple and their dog while hiking over the Summer and is now being lauded for his savvy thinking.

Twelve-year-old David King and his mother Christine were hiking the Waimano Trail above Pearl City in August, KHON reports. David was working to earn a Boy Scout Merit Badge on the 15-mile hike.

In their travels on August 29, they came across a lost couple. JD and Aimee were with their injured 100-pound pitbull “Smokey,” who had cuts on his feet and was unable to walk, the outlet reported.

The couple had neither food nor water and could not call anyone for help as their cell phone was dead, according to KHON. They had not seen anyone for hours when David and Christine showed up, with about three miles left to go in his Merit Badge hike.

“We asked ‘oh do you need any help?’ They said ‘yeah,’ they showed us the dog’s paws had some cuts on it. So, it hurt when the dog would walk,” David told the outlet. “When the dog would walk, it would just be really painful.”

JD attempted to carry Smokey on his back, but the dog was too large, so David sprung into action and put his scout knowledge to work.

“We built them a stretcher using a big tree branch that we broke in half and used our shirts and slid it on using the armholes to fit the sticks through,” David told KHON. 

“It was his idea to make the stretcher,” Christine informed KHON. “We didn’t think it would work because we didn’t think the dog would get onto the stretcher. Smokey was just very happy to get on the stretcher. We just carried him out.”

He had learned to make a stretcher from his older brother, who is an Eagle Scout, when David was working on his First Aid Merit Badge, according to CNN. 

The group took shifts carrying Smokey out on the stretcher, but the journey was arduous since David had just played soccer before going on the hike.

“It was really tough, but we rotated,” David told KHON. “Sometimes we did four people, two on each side, two people — my mom and the man — and then the dog would get off and walk some which was really helpful and let us relax.”

The group made it out safely and Smokey’s paws are now all healed up, the outlet reports. 

“I think that when you help someone out it’s like joy in you that just like you know you did something good that day,” David told KHON. 

The preteen’s savvy thinking and rescue efforts were even acknowledged by the Boy Scouts of America on Facebook, who shared CNN’s article about David.

He has a word of caution for anyone planning to go hiking.

“Make sure that whenever you’re doing an activity, think of what can go wrong and how you can prevent it,” David told the outlet.