No one knows exactly how long the 2-year-old pit bull had been left to die alone in the Arizona mountains . A photo taken by Andi Davis , the hiker who found him , shows the dog half standing , half collapsed , his head pressing against a rock . Davis had walked about a half mile uphill last Friday , October 18 , along a deserted trail in Phoenix when she found the black and white dog , suffering from bullet wounds , said Arizona Humane Society spokeswoman Bretta Nelson in an e-mail . She hesitated for a moment before approaching the pit bull , Nelson said . But when he lifted his head as she reached for her water bottle , Davis put her apprehension aside , gave him a drink and then lifted the 47-pound dog into her arms , Nelson said . Then , she began walking . `` It will be OK , '' Davis kept telling the dog as she slowly picked her way down the path . Every so often she would stop , give him another drink , then stand up again and keep going . `` At first she was shaking because she was scared , '' Nelson said . `` Then she was shaking because of the weight of him . '' Eventually the dog stopped moving . Andi Davis was overwhelmed by the media attention and did not want to talk , but gave Nelson the permission to do so . `` When my mom found our new dog on the mountain , my heart broke at the first sight of him , '' said Andi 's daughter Jessi , 10 , in a letter to Nelson and the AHS . `` He was torn up . Everywhere . '' Described as a `` very fit person , '' it took Davis an hour to complete the journey , her arms aching , Nelson said . Davis 's husband and daughter met her at the bottom and they took the dog to the Arizona Humane Society , where veterinarians examined him . `` I thought I would never see him again , '' Jessi said . `` I knew he was in good hands , but I still felt very sad . '' Doctors found an open abdominal wound , bullet fragments near his spinal cord and a bullet in the middle of his neck , Nelson said . The Davis family named him Elijah . `` I was so , so happy when we got to see him , '' Jessi wrote . Nelson said Elijah responded to Jessi as if `` they had been best friends their whole lives . '' Elijah is now adjusting to his new foster home , where he is getting to know the other Davis dogs . `` Mom has a dog , dad has a dog , I have a dog , '' Jessi told Nelson . `` Elijah is the family dog . Because he 's special . '' As for Andi , her arms still ache even though it 's been a week since the rescue . Nelson said it 's unlikely any investigation will be conducted to find the person who injured Elijah since there is n't a clear timetable and no witnesses have come forward . `` After all you have done for us , '' Jessi said in her letter . `` I want to help animals too . Thank you so much for making our lives better . You rock . ''
Pit bull with bullet wounds abandoned on mountain trail . A pit bull was shot and killed by a hunter in the mountains of New Mexico after it attacked another dog that had been left alone for several hours. Davis carries the 47-pound dog half a mile .