On December 29, 2025, 82-year-old Karen Davis set out for an afternoon walk near her home in Elmira, Oregon, with her dog Cami, a blue heeler cattle dog. She never came home.
As night fell and temperatures dropped, around ten volunteers from the Lane County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue team fanned out into the woods around her home. They searched rough terrain past the dead end of a forested road. And then, in the dark, they heard something: the sound of a dog.
Following it, they found Davis — awake, and alive. Cami was lying directly across her legs.
A dog’s body temperature runs a few degrees warmer than a human’s. Through the cold night, Cami’s body heat, combined with her presence and her barking to guide rescuers in, is credited with helping keep Davis conscious and warding off hypothermia.
Davis was treated for hypothermia and taken to a hospital. The Lane County Sheriff’s Office publicly praised Cami as a hero, stating: “Cami kept her warm and signaled to Lane County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue volunteers.”
Source: Outside magazine, Lane County Sheriff’s Office.
