A single mother is being praised as a hero after she managed to carry a 55 pound dog for six hours to save his life.

Tia Maree Vargas and her 76 year-old father were recently out hiking a mountain trail on a hot summer day when they came upon an abandoned dog. The animal was clearly seriously injured and was not moving well, and Tia and her dad could not find any owners in the area.

Realizing the dog would die if she left him there, Tia decided that she was not going to let that happen.

“He was pretty beat up,” Tia said. “He couldn’t walk… For all I knew he could have been out there for a week.”

Without hesitating, Tia picked up the 55 pound dog and put him on her shoulders, carrying him down the mountain for six long hours. The hike was a difficult one even without carrying such a large dog, so doing it with that extra weight was a huge challenge for Tia.

“Yes, we had to hike through snow, we lost the trail at one point,” she recounted. “It was one of the hardest things I’ve done in my life.”

Thankfully, Tia was eventually able to get the dog, who has since been named Boomer, down the mountain to safety after six and a half long hours. Since then, Boomer has been recovering well given all that he has been through. Tia is still going above and beyond to help him, traveling four hours each way (in a car this time) to take him to a specialist vet. After all of that, she decided to adopt him and give him the loving forever home that he deserves!

Find out more about their incredible story in the video below.