Dog Rescue Adventure

[SueK]

Had an interesting morning! My mom moved this spring and behind her new house is a very densely wooded area, including a sinkhole. Yesterday her neighbor had her dog for a walk and she (the dog, of course ) saw two rabbits, yanked her leash out of the owner's grasp and took off. She was still missing this morning.

I swung by my mom's with Sam after a chiro appt this morning. Her other neighbor comes running up and says she took hedge clippers, etc and hacked her way into the woods and heard the dog yowling from the sinkhole! I grabbed my mom's tennis shoes and went into the woods. Sinkhole? Yep! About the size of an inground swimming pool! The poor dog was stuck underneath a ledge and yelping. I told the neighbor I'd try to go down and get her, but the part where I was was about 10 feet deep and obviously, I'm thinking, how the heck would I get out??

I was just about to get down and slide down when the police showed up. It must have been a slow day in town, because he was followed shortly by TWO fire trucks, three smaller Fire and Rescue trucks, two borough maintenance trucks, two TV reporters, a dog ordinance offer and a vet! LOL! An hour later, they had chainsawed and hacked their way further into the woods and rescued the dog. I told my mom that I could have rescued the poor dog in 1/2 the time, but then she reminded me that **I** would have been stuck down there as well! All I could think was that if it was Baxter, I'd want someone else to help rescue him.

Anyway, there was a small blurb on the evening news and the one man from the fire company said that they had to stretch out a big ladder across the sinkhole and put ropes down because the sinkhole was so unstable, and even more so after all our recent storms. So I guess now I realize I would have looked like a complete a** had I tried to rescue her on my own. The good news is she's fine and, except for a few cuts from falling about 10 feet, she's healthy!

[PAMMELA]

Wow!! Great story!

[SusanL]

I would have jumped right in, thank goodness for the fire company's compassion to help a dog, good news to hear that Baxter is fine, except for a few cuts. Rest tonight and heal yourself!!

[lindrusso]

I guess you didn't have any flooding over your way if your rescue crews and newspeople all converged on the doggie rescue.

Glad the dog is okay and glad you're not stuck in an unstable sinkhole!

I was just telling the boys the other day that I thought I remembered that PA is prone to sinkholes............

[Beth]

I'm glad the reinforcements arrived just in time -- before you were the sotry on TV! Glad that everyone is safe and happy now.

[mbrogier]

I'm glad that they rescued the dog, and you didn't go down into the sinkhole. My aunt has one by her house. It used to be about 10 feet deep, but is now about 400 feet deep and is about 200 feet across. They are extremely unstable. You could have been buried. I think if I had a choice of having to climb down a well or a sinkhole, I'd pick the well. It might be a good idea for your mom to fence that area off to keep kids from going back there. A cheap chicken wire fence should be enough--just something to show that you tried to block off the area.

[luv2cook]

Wow. I sure would like the fire dept. to come to my help my animals. That's great.

Right after I got Kharlee, I heard her screaming in the backyard one day. She had gotten her paw/leg stuck in a tree! Don't ask my how or why. Anyhoo, every time I tried to move her, she screamed. I had visions of the FD coming over hacking out tree! Finally, I calmed down and I lifted her up and that got her paw out. Phew!

Another FD vision was when one of my cats got in our attic. He had been in there for a while - I had to get my Dh to come home from work (thank god he worked 5 min. away). He was wedged way in the back of the attic. My DH said that if he had gone much further, he wouldn't have been able to reach him. He dragged him out by his tail. He almost died he was so hot (it was August in Houston). I had visions of the FD cutting a hole in our roof to get him out!

[SueK]

I'm glad that they rescued the dog, and you didn't go down into the sinkhole. My aunt has one by her house. It used to be about 10 feet deep, but is now about 400 feet deep and is about 200 feet across. They are extremely unstable. You could have been buried. I think if I had a choice of having to climb down a well or a sinkhole, I'd pick the well. It might be a good idea for your mom to fence that area off to keep kids from going back there. A cheap chicken wire fence should be enough--just something to show that you tried to block off the area.

Yikes! That's one big sinkhole!

The woods behinds my mom's neighborhood is actually "green area" owned by the borough. The neighbors have been begging for them to do something with it, as it is obviously a real hazard. They're hoping that after today, once they saw how awful the conditions are back there, and how deep the sinkhole now is, they will fence it off!

[mbrogier]

I'm glad the sinkhole isn't on your mom's property! I think they're caused when there was a water table underneath the surface that dries up. The land just settles down until it hits the bedrock layer. My uncle is an engineering professor and studied that area before he bought the property. Their sinkhole is on common property as well.

You're really fortunate that you had help to get your dog. (I'm sure you know that ) No one would have done that out here.