ROCKY RIVER, Ohio (WJW) – After their beloved pet disappeared over the weekend, a Northeast Ohio family turned to the incredible capabilities of a high-tech drone.

Sonja Jarmoszuk said she was devastated when she learned that her family’s 15-year-old Portuguese water dog, Pumpkin, vanished on Saturday night during a visit to the lakefront home of Sonja’s parents in Rocky River.

“My concern is she’s deaf, she can’t hear and even if you try calling her name out, it’s going to do no good,” she said.

After searching for Pumpkin for nearly 24 hours with no luck, the family was running out of hope.

“I was just fearful she was not alive, to be honest with you, for that amount of time to be without food and water,” said Jarmoszuk.

A friend recommended that the family hire a thermal drone company based in Geneva, which specializes in finding lost pets.

“I had never heard of it and I’m like, ‘wow, this could be the saving grace,’ because I’ve exhausted every other possibility,” she said.

Craig Fazenbaker, the operator of Grunt Deer Recovery LLC, arrived in Rocky River on Sunday night with a tough assignment: try to use his thermal drone to find a small black dog in pitch black conditions along the Lake Erie shoreline.

He initially focused on the steep, vine-covered embankment that drops from the family’s backyard 70 feet down to the lake.

“That’s where I had a gut feeling where she might have ended up going, so I hit that area pretty good, didn’t find anything. Started looking within the local neighborhoods, up and down the houses there,” Fazenbaker said.

But Fazenbaker said something told him to go back to the lake and the side of the cliff, and this time, he changed the color setting on his thermal camera and dropped the drone down to 150 feet above the shoreline.

“I just started panning that whole entire embankment and that’s when I picked up on a hot spot. I zoomed in and confirmed it was her,” he said.

On audio from his drone video, Fazenbaker shouted, “I got her, right out back! Right there!”

“Is she dead?” Jarmoszuk asked.

“No, look! She’s right by the dock, let’s go!” Fazenbaker responded.

“When he yelled out, ‘I got her,’ I mean, I was just beyond thrilled, excited,” Jarmoszuk said, beaming with joy.

In most cases, Fazenbaker tells the owner where he has spotted their pet and then guides them to the exact spot.

However, in this case, he decided it would be too dangerous for Pumpkin’s owner to climb down the embankment.

Most of the sections of an old staircase down to the lakefront are rotted out, so Fazenbaker had to force his way down the embankment through a tangle of vines and brush until he reached Pumpkin.

“As soon as I like actually got my hands up and around her and picked her up and brought her into my arms, she kind of looked up at me, sniffed my beard, gave me a lick and then her tail immediately started wagging, so she kind of knew she was safe at that point,” he said.

The veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps then began the slow climb up the embankment to deliver the precious cargo to an overjoyed family.

“It was a relief, having a part of your family back. I can’t even imagine what other pet owners have gone through,” said Jarmoszuk.

“It’s always rewarding bringing those lost loved ones home and seeing the joy and happiness on the owner’s faces,” Fazenbaker said.

We are told that after Pumpkin was rescued, she drank water for nearly seven minutes. The family’s veterinarian said for a dog her age, she’s doing fine.

Pumpkin is the 15th pet rescued by Fazenbaker and his drone in less than a year.