Missing 72-Year Old Woman And Dog Survive 9 Solitary Days Lost In Arizona Wilderness

It took 72 years of accumulated "wisdom and memories" to help Ann Rodgers to live through the harsh Arizona wilderness for nine days.

The grand, old lady and her two-year-old rescue dog, a Queensland terrier mix called Queenie, were saved late Saturday afternoon. The state Department of Public Safety and the Gila County Sheriff's Office said that they had been found in the Canyon Creek area of the White River Indian Reservation.

It all started when Rodgers drove in the back country road to drop into her daughter's home in Phoenix, but got lost. She took a "waaaay wrong turn" and sputtered out of gas. Though she had planned to spend her birthday with her daughter and grandson, she got stranded in the wilderness with her dog.

When she was left among the canyons and lost her cell phone connection, she shouted in frustration that only reminded her that no one could hear her.

"Why the hell am I still here?" she shouted.

"Here, here, here," cried the walls.

"Why hasn't anybody come down and found me yet, dammit?" she shouted once again.

"Dammit, dammit, dammit," the walls echoed once more.

For a long time she just wandered about to seek help. At one point she wanted to die, and thought: "All right, if this is the end - if this is it - at least I'm going to die in the most natural beautiful cathedral I have been in in a long time."

"And then I thought, 'No, I ain't giving up yet," she said.

However, a huge search party was already out. The last person she had met, an ex-Marine named Bruce Trees, told local authorities that she had vanished. The search really started on April 3, when a detective with the Gila County Sheriff's Office got a call from the White Mountain Apache Forest Rangers. They told the detective about the problem and asked the department to begin searching.

Some people found her abandoned car. The following Saturday a White Mountain Apache Tribe Game and Fish officer saw her dog coming out from the Canyon Creek area even as they went higher to get a vantage point.

The started an aerial search and found sticks and stones across the canyon floor spelling out a huge shout: "HELP." Further below the canyon, they arrived at a shelter that was abandoned.

They finally circled over her as she stood near a signal fire and waved to the rescue helicopter.

"Old people are thought of as not always as able to do things as others, which is true in many ways," Rodgers said  Tuesday. "However, because we age, wisdom [and] memories become part of your knowledge base that help you survive."

Hence, though she had been out in the wild for nine days, she was still not fazed.

Did she plan to visit her grandchildren?

She whispered: "You better damn well believe it."