It wasn’t a cat up a tree, but a puppy up a bluff.

Island County Fire District 3’s rescue team spent nearly two hours Sunday looking for an 8-month-old Doberman Pinscher that had climbed partway up the bank at Double Bluff beach about noon, and couldn’t find its way down.

The dog’s owner, an Oak Harbor woman, said the pair were walking on the beach when the dog bolted up the bank. When the dog declined to return to the beach, the owner called 911.

The rescue crew searched from above at three locations in vain for the female puppy, which eventually found its way down on its own, Fire Chief Rusty Palmer said Monday.

“The dog didn’t want to be found,” Palmer said. “About an hour later it showed itself, and the owner retrieved it.”

He said that the owner later reported that, except for for a few blackberry brambles stuck in its coat, the dog was none the worse for wear.