Dog rescued from wastewater treatment plant
COLORADO: A twoyearold English mastiff led astray by an escapeprone hound dog is happy to be home, but still stinks after being found stranded in muck at a wastewater treatment plant in Colorado.
Gidget’s ordeal started when a walker coonhound named Buddy helped her escape from their house in Pueblo West on Sunday evening.
“We have a hound dog that likes to play escape artist with the front door,” Mandi Smith said on Tuesday.
“When he gets out, Gidget, of course, follows.”
The hound came home about midday Monday, wet and muddy, without his partnerincrime.
While Smith was out searching, an employee at a wastewater treatment plant about 10km from Smith’s house heard Gidget barking for help.
Tony Campbell found the dog on the edge of an aeration pond.
The aeration process makes it impossible for anything to float in the waste water, even a boat, said Pueblo West Fire Division Chief Brad Davidson, meaning it wasn’t safe for Campbell to try and rescue Gidget herself.
Fire crews used a ladder to get down to Gidget. They hosed her off and turned her over to Pueblo Animal Services, where she got two decontamination baths at the shelter before being returned to her owners.
“Everybody at the shelter just loved her,” Smith said. “She was a star.”
Campbell, a friend of Smith’s, had seen Buddy at the treatment plant, too, but was unable to catch up with him.
Smith’s 16yearold son Henry Smithour went to pick up Gidget, who was reunited with Buddy and the family’s other dog. — AP