CHULA VISTA, Ca. (KGTV) — A dog was rescued after spending hours at the bottom of well in California.
Indy, a 9-year-old retired law enforcement dog, found himself in quite the predicament Wednesday afternoon when he got stuck 40 feet down a well.
"Just out of the blue. You hear about it in books, you joke about it, you know...Then all of a sudden, your dog disappears in front of you," said Indy's owner Mark Pugh.
Pugh says Indy is on the road to recovery and that his injuries not as serious as previously thought. He adds that he's in good spirits and is responding well to treatment.
"X-rays [show] no broken bones, blood work is good, he's aware, he's just sore," said Pugh.
Pugh, a Navy veteran, stood by for four excruciating hours Wednesday after Indy fell into the hole that was covered by thick brush.
He gets emotional thinking about what happened.
"He means a lot to [me], he does," said Pugh.
Rescue crews say they definitely had their work cut out for them.
"The ground being really soft and wet made it really a dangerous situation," said Ken Gilden with Animal Fire Rescue Training. He specializes in these types of scenarios, but even he admits the depth of the hole, the position of the dog, and the fact that they couldn't secure it enough to send someone down, all made for some tense moments.
The only choice they had was to try and lasso Indy by his neck.
"At the end of the day it was either get him out that way or possibly have to leave him down there and I don't think anybody was ready to make that call," said Gilden.
But luckily the rope finally landed just right and Indy was hoisted up in a matter of seconds.
"He's just been a strong German Shepard [with a] big double coat, big ears, so it's just the nature of German Shepards. They're strong dogs," said Gilden.
Indy's situation inspired Gilden to think of better ways to get to animals in trouble.
"I am working on a device that we could do to get down in there so we would be able to make that rescue a whole lot simpler," said Gilden.
