Cats are reputed to have nine lives. But, we know of one dog whose had at least three.
Last Friday, a Portland Fire and Rescue crew pulled Tess, a 14-year-old Labrador retriever, from a manhole.
Tess was reportedly crossing the street of her Sellwood, Portland, neighborhood to greet some city workers when she plummeted 23 feet into the uncovered manhole. The workers were on a routine inspection of sewer lines.
“She just walked up expecting a treat and just went over the edge and disappeared," Larry Beutler, one of Tess’ humans, told local NBC affiliate, KGW News. “So that was quite a shock.” Luckily, a thick pile of leaves and mud broke Tess’ fall.
Beutler called his wife, Linda, who was en route to work when she got the news.”It was absurd,” she said, recalling her reaction to Tess' fall. “We went through a real life-threatening thing with her before Christmas, so it was just like, ‘What else can happen?’”
The “confined space rescue” using a harness and pulley system was swift and successful. Within an hour, the uninjured Tess was extracted from the hole to a round of applause by onlookers.
Safely reunited with her humans, Tess inspired an outpouring of gratitude. The Buetlers, reported that this was not the first scrape from which Tess had escaped. Her feats include surviving a house fire and a flood that carried her down a river.
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Aleks never gave up hope that someone would find him.
Buried in the rubble of a building for 23 days, the Husky dog managed to make enough noise for a concerned resident of Antakya, Turkey, to notify rescuers.
First responders dug through the rubble and pulled Aleks from a wedge-shaped pocket in which he survived without food and water.
Though he’d lost weight, Aleks was overall in good condition when he was reunited with his astounded human. He was given food and water and transferred to Turkey’s Federation of Animal Rights for medical treatment.
One volunteer called the rescue “a miracle.”
Several dozen pets have been rescued in the wake of the February 6 Turkey-Syria earthquake and aftershocks that have claimed more than 49,000 lives.