Stories4 min(s) read
Published 21:30 10 Jan 2021 GMT
A video has gone viral on social media this week showing the incredible moment a dog was rescued from a hole after being trapped down there for approximately 30 hours.
Per The Daily Mirror, the dog in question is a hard-of-hearing Cocker Spaniel named Dizzy. Dizzy went missing after her owner, 54-year-old Duncan Flowers, lost her while taking her out for a walk in Burlish Top nature reserve in Worcestershire, England, on the evening of Sunday, January 2.
Take a look at the heartwarming footage in the video below:When Duncan launched an urgent appeal on Facebook asking for help to find the missing pooch, he was overjoyed when 70 members of the local community banded together and searched for the dog until midnight.
Sadly, they couldn't find a trace of Dizzy anywhere. But Lady Luck was with Duncan the very next day when he returned to Burlish Top for another look.
After finding a rabbit hole nearby, a curious Duncan recruited a close friend who owned a JCB digger to help him excavate the burrow.
While filming the digging, Duncan's friend Dan Tonks managed to record the moment when the ten-year-old dog suddenly popped out, covered in dirt from being trapped down the narrow 20ft-deep shaft.
An emotional Duncan can be seen picking up Dizzy and giving her a firm hug, while the other onlookers cheer in the background.
Per The Mirror, Duncan later commented on the rescue effort by stating: "We were on the way back home when Dizzy went into a hedgerow between two fields and disappeared.
"I went around the other side but she was gone. I hung around for a couple of hours thinking she had run off and would come back but I couldn't find her.
"I went back home and put a post on social media and people started phoning up left, right and center offering to help look for her. From about 5pm until after midnight, about 70 people were out looking for her with torches all over the Rifle Range and Blackstone but no one could find her."
He continued: "Someone suggested taking a coat or blanket and leaving it where I'd last seen him in case she came back but I got up at 6am the next morning and there was still no sign of her.
"I phoned the dog warden, the vets, put up posts online and then I thought to myself, she must still be in that hedgerow. I went back with a shovel and phoned a mate who works down the drains and he came and put a camera down a rabbit hole.
"It only went down two meters and still we couldn't see her, so I phoned my other friend who's got a small JCB digger and he brought that over.
"We started digging, we didn't even know she was in there, but I just had an inkling. Two and a half hours later - we were about 20ft into the hole and about 10ft deep - she just popped up out of nowhere. It was like a miracle.
He added: "She had been in there for about 30 hours. I couldn't believe it. I wrapped her up in my coat and carried her back home.
"She was shaking and shivering but as soon as I opened the door she ran straight into the house, tail wagging, and started eating and drinking. She wasn't injured thankfully. It's just brilliant to have her back home."
In a later status update made on January 4, Duncan's son Danny shared the footage on Facebook, and captioned it: "Found safe and well 20ft into a rabbit hole Thank you to everyone, [there are] so many good people that got involved off [their] own backs."
