Puppy, owner reunite with LASD air crew that rescued them from Mt. Wilson

A puppy who survived a scary fall down a Mt. Wilson cliff wagged his tail happily as he was reunited Friday with his rescuers.

Bubba, a 16-week-old dog, and his owner Dave Santonil came forward Friday to offer their thanks to the Air 5 crew of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Special Enforcement Bureau, who airlifted them to safety after they fell down a cliff. The pair had been hiking with Santonil's mother on Aug. 8 when Bubba slipped down a hill, and they could not make their way to safety because of the loose soil and steep drop of a few hundred feet.

"He was right on the edge, and it happened to crumble a bit," Santonil said. The cliff broke suddenly, and the pup slid down probably 80 feet. Santonil describes being freaked out and panicked, and decided to jump down after Bubba against his mother's wishes.

The puppy was understandably scared and hid under a rock in a crevice. Santonil said it took him between 40 and 45 minutes to find his dog, as he set his phone to repeatedly dial 911. Eventually, the sheriff's helicopter crew came to the rescue, and video shows the pair being pulled up from the side of the cliff and into the helicopter.

One of Bubba's rescuers said that the dog had already grown since they rescued him two weeks ago, and he was wagging his tail upon seeing them this time, rather than peeing on them as he did in the helicopter.

"I think he was the most scared out of all of us," Santonil said.

Santonil says he would take Bubba out hiking again, but probably not off leash.

"I just had never seen it that dry when I was up there," he said.