'She's alive again,' one rescuer, Christoph Tomford, said. 'She's back to a full expression of her personality.'

Speaking to Ellen, John Steed added: 'I've been an animal lover my whole life and I've got two rescue German Shepherds. I think she'd fit in so well.'

Ortolani claims he called 911 to ask authorities to help his pet before he left her in early August - but they said the weather was too bad to get there.

'Having trained, professional, well-equipped people saying it's too risky to go up there to get a dog out of there, I couldn't see the responsibility or how it would make sense for me to get untrained, unequipped, not professional people to go risk their lives to get the dog,' he added.

Lucky managed to survive for eight days on the craggy peak at about 13,000 feet before a group of hikers found her. She was severely dehydrated and was having trouble breathing. 

The rescue operation was made possible thanks to Scott Washburn, who came across the bloodied dog with his wife Amanda on August 11.

They gave her food and water and used their first aid kit to bandage her wounds, but the animal's paws were too damaged to walk and she was too heavy for them to carry on their own.

Found: Scott Washburn and his wife Amanda discovered Missy on August 11, wounded and near-death atop a mound of bloodied rocks on Mt Bierstadt

Search: They posted a photograph of Missy on the 14ers.com, a social network for mountain climbers and dozens of people offered to help track her down and bring her to safety

Saved: The group of hikers found her on the mountain and put her in a backpack to carry her to safety

'My wife broke down crying at the thought of leaving the dog to die,' Washburn told ABC7.

They left her and posted a photograph of Lucky on the 14ers.com, a social network for mountain climbers, to appeal for help.

'I love her, but those people risked life and limb to get her out of there, and that has got to be worth something'

Anthony Ortolani

Dozens of people organised a rescue for the dog - at the same time, wondering who could be so cruel as to bring an animal to the top of a mountain and leave it there.

Eight volunteers banded together to rescue Lucky, launching a nine-hour mission to recover her. 

They found her just before a snowstorm was setting in and put her in an over-sized backpack to remove her from her perch.

A veterinarian volunteered to take her in and found that the dog miraculously had no fractures, no internal injuries nor other permanent damage from the ordeal.

'Her survival and shear will to live are astounding by any measure,' Mr Washburn said.

Mission: Volunteers banded together to rescue Missy, launching a nine-hour mission to find and recover her

Safe: They found her just before a snowstorm was settling in and put her in an over-sized backpack

The Washburns grew attached to the dog, but that's when her owner entered the picture - happy his dog had been saved and embarrassed he wasn't the one who came to her rescue.

'I am at a complete loss of words. My gratitude for the people involved in this is without measure,' Mr Ortolani posted on 14ers.com.

He asked for the name of the clinic Lucky was being treated at so he could be reunited with her and reimburse them for healing her.

Reading the mounting messages of disdain for his treatment of the dog, he explained his actions. Her injuries made it impossible for her to walk, so the two hikers tried to lower her from boulder to boulder with ropes, but she was getting hurt worse and worse, he explained.

Healthy: A veterinarian volunteered to take her in and found that the dog miraculously had no fractures, no internal injuries nor other permanent damage from the ordeal

Rescuers: Alex Gelb, Stefan Kleinschuster, Ralph Kolva, Chris O'Riley, John Steed, and Christoph Tomford, Scott Washburn, bottom right, and Chase Lindell, bottom left, all teamed up to save Missy, center

'Eventually she just stopped standing or moving at all and I knew she was pretty badly hurt,' he said. 'I picked her up on my shoulders and was hopping from boulder to boulder but I couldn't keep her on me.'

They spent two hours trying to get her down, but with encroaching clouds and mounting fear, they made the difficult decision to leave her behind.

He convinced himself she had died of her injuries to cope with the guilt of leaving her.

'All I can say is that I am relieved that she is okay,' he said on the message board. 'I am ashamed that it wasn't me who got her off of the mountain, I underestimated the good will and resolve of the hiking community of Colorado, and I am eternally grateful.'

He said that in the days after he left her, he searched the internet for 'dog found on Bierstadt' every days, but didn't find anything.

Briefly reunited: Ortolani, pictured, asked for the name of the clinic Missy was being treated at so he could be reunited with her. But he has now said the rescuers can keep her

Fight: The Clear Creek County Sheriff's Office is investigating the case, not to decide who the dog's rightful owner is, but whether or not Mr Ortolani is guilty of cruelty to an animal

He had just about given up hope when he read about her heroic rescuers and her good fortune.

'I am not proud of leaving Missy. I did what I thought was right at the time to protect myself and the teenager that I was with,' Ortolani wrote in an earlier post.

'I was responsible for him, and I was not leaving him there alone with clouds growing over Bierstadt, and I was not going to send him off alone with absolutely no cell service.'

Ortolani is scheduled to appear in court on October 16. If convicted, the 29-year-old man could face up to 18 months in prison and may be forced to pay a fine as high as $5,000.