A Nevada man may owe his life to the intelligence of his border collie after the real-world "Lassie" led search and rescue to him.

The man had fallen 70 feet down a steep slope in the Tahoe Forest, breaking his hip and some ribs. The next day he managed to crawl his way to a patch of cell service and call for help.

Search and Rescue pinged the location of his last call, while a friend of the victim told the searchers "look for Saul."

That advice paid off when, scouring the remote country, the searchers came upon a black and white border collie jumping up and down and spinning around in circles.

Saul had run about 200 yards away through the woods to find the Search and Rescue team, and as sure as Lassie, led them to his owner who had erected a little shelter under a camouflage tarp.

"At first we didn't believe it because it sounded like a movie," said Sgt. Dennis Haack of the Nevada County Sheriff's Office Search and Rescue. "When they came back and actually described it to us, the reality was that they had followed the dog directly to the victim."

The team got a helicopter to the scene to transport the man to safety. Saul was taken to the nearby town of Grass Valley where he "was given a well-deserved dinner," while his owner receives treatment.

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