This is the moment an adventurous dog was rescued by fire-fighters after surviving a 30ft fall – down a WELL.
Cocker spaniel Lilly had a miracle escape after plunging down the 10 metre deep hole during a Boxing Day walk in Upton-upon-Severn, Worcs.
Lilly’s owner watched her disappear as she chased a bird into woodland before finding her two-and-a-half hours later by shining a mobile phone light down the well.
Specialist fire crews were called at around 1.30pm and used a dog harness to winch the pooch to safety two hours later.
She was taken to the vet to be checked over but suffered only minor injuries, including a graze to her eye.
Incident commander Gary Jay, from Hereford & Worcester Fire and Rescue Service, said: “She was just running around in circles at the bottom.
“We knew the rescue was quite straightforward. She came out very successfully.”
Firefighter Neil Bevan was lowered into the one metre wide gap to place Lilly into a special harness and hoist her to the surface.
He added: “She was a little bit shaken so I think there was plenty of cuddles.
“We do get quite a few incidents which we try not to remember but this is one of the heart warming ones.”
Hereford & Worcester Fire and Rescue Service said they also sent an animal rescue team, a rope rescue crew as well as members of their urban search and rescue (USAR).
Chris Jelfs, White Watch Commander at Droitwich Fire Station, said: “As far as I could make out Lilly is a gun dog.
“We believe that she had gone into some scrub land, she had gone missing and because she is trained not to bark they couldn’t find where she was.
“We gas monitored the well, put confined space procedures in place and once we were happy with the conditions we lowered a rope rescue person down the well to get Lilly.
“We go to a lot of incidents in our career, some you do not want to remember and some you want to remember, and that was a nice memorable one.
“It was a happy ending. She is a beautiful little dog.”
Crew commander David Whitehead, said he was surprised Lilly had not suffered more serious injuries in the fall.
He added: “For a drop of that distance I’m quite surprised she got no injuries really.
“We have had a couple of these before with covered over wells and dogs have fallen down and they are pretty resilient animals.
“We are the main rope rescue team for the brigade.
“Without out specialist training it would be quite awkward and quite dangerous really. “
