"So we were standing about here when I heard the sticks cracking," said Cara Jones, dog owner.
It was late and dark and Cara Jones couldn't figure out why her 2-year-old pit bull named "Creature" kept leading her into the brush Thursday night.
"She looked back at me and then barked, and there I saw a figure laying," Jones said, "She was trying to get up and the sticks kept breaking on her, so she would fall back down."
Shivering on the wet, cold ground was 89-year-old Carmen Mitchell who suffers from Alzheimer's.
Mitchell had wandered away from her caretaker and somehow made it into the woods about a mile away.
She was lost for several hours.
"In just the blink of an eye she was gone, and I was so scared because she's a loving person," said Rochelle Wason, Mitchell's caretaker.
Rochelle Wason says she immediately called police and they responded in full-force with boots on the ground, K-9 units, and even a helicopter in the sky.
But still, they couldn't find Carmen Mitchell.
"All the searchers were out there, all the volunteers were out there, everyone was putting in their effort here," said Chief Richard Ivone, Piscataway Police Department
But ultimately, it was a spunky house pet who found the 89-year-old.
"I still couldn't believe it. I still couldn't believe it, but I was gleeful nonetheless," said Luke Stapleton, the victim's son-in-law.
Because of her Alzheimer's, Luke Stapleton says his mother-in-law, who was treated for hypothermia, has no memory of what happened.
Stapleton says he's grateful for Creature and says pit bulls get a bad rap.
"I know now that pit bulls are not just as they are described by other people," Stapleton said.
"I had a lot of people looking down on me for having a pit bull, and I'm glad that I have her," Jones said.
Creature is a pit bull who is more rescue-dog than watch-dog.
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