Dog owners love their four-legged companions as if they were their child, which is why one UK woman was devastated when her eight-year-old patterdoodle suddenly disappeared.
52-year-old Rachel Stormonth-Darling had let her Patterdale terrier and poodle cross named Moppit out into the backyard one afternoon like she usually did. However, while outside, Moppit found a rabbit and chased it to a dried-up stream in the back of the yard. And when the rabbit climbed inside the tunnel which supplies water to the village, she followed along.
Moppit was too big to navigate the pipe, however, and ended up getting stuck and trying to dig her way out but as she dug, part of the tunnel collapsed and made it impossible to get back out the way she came. And when Rachel tried calling for her to come back inside, she was nowhere to be found.
18 hours later, Rachel started hearing Muppit crying. “I was scouring the garden when I noticed the stream had gone dry, which had never happened before. I put my ear to the connecting tunnel and heard Moppit. Then I walked into my neighbour’s garden and heard her again, this time much more clearly, through a drain and called the fire department.”
Muppit somehow managed to crawl through the pipe system and ended up 15 feet underneath next door neighbor’s patio. “I found the owner trying to shift the dirt with her bare hands, and we had to convince her not to go underground herself,” said Stuart Gillion who led the Dorset Fire & Rescue Service rescue. “I decided we needed additional expertise and called in the urban search and rescue unit, whose highly trained officers made the rescue possible. After identifying the dog’s location we drew up a map on a whiteboard and dug a hole.”
After neighbor Mark Greave gave permission to the rescue team, they dug through his yard for nine long hours until finally locating and rescuing Moppit. “Moppit was dirty and thirsty but the owner was very relieved. It was a good rescue with great teamwork and a happy ending,” Gillion said.“The rescue team was incredible, It was against all odds that she survived. It’s amazing to have her back. She’s the luckiest dog alive,” Rachel added.
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[Featured image: BNPS]
Firefighters Dig For 9 Hours To Save A Dog Trapped Under A Patio is an article from: LifeDaily