I’ve had a ruff 2 weeks!
Spaniel survives fortnight down 82ft well by eating mud and licking moisture off walls
WHEN it comes to survival, Bobby the spaniel could teach Bear Grylls a thing or two.
The youngster bounced down a disused well and then spent two weeks at the bottom living off mud and moisture from the walls. Bobby disappeared earlier this month while being walked by a family friend.
Owners Adrian and Sally-Anne Phillips assumed he had run off and been killed – but he had actually tumbled down the 82ft deep disused well. The cocker spaniel suffered no broken bones but had lost several pounds in weight when a farmer and his wife discovered him after hearing his pitiful yelps.
The two-year- old dog, who was pulled out by firefighters, is believed to have survived by lapping at the damp walls and eating earth.
The Phillipses were there to see Bobby rescued. Mrs Phillips, 58, said: ‘As soon as he saw us he was all excited and wagging his tail. I gave him some dog train-
‘Excited and wagging his tail’
ing treats and then we took him home for some scrambled eggs. He was really hungry but I didn’t want to overfeed him as he had been without food for so long.
‘I don’t know how he survived for two weeks, it’s just incredible. You could feel his ribs as he had lost weight and his nose was red and sore and he had bloodshot eyes from mud getting into them.’
Bobby went missing on May 12 during a walk in the field in Gimingham, Norfolk, about threequarters of a mile away from the Phillips’ home.
Parish council chairman Mr Phillips, 63, and his wife held search parties for ten days, put up posters and launched a social media campaign to try to find him.
The mystery was finally solved on Thursday when Ali Cargill, 45, and his wife Rachel, 55, heard Bobby’s weak barks for help.
The couple, who live 100 yards away from the well, shone a torch done and saw him below.
The well is believed to have belonged to a house which stood in the field before it was demolished in the 1940s. It had been covered over but Mr Cargill discovered it had opened up three weeks ago and marked it out with stakes but hadn’t got round to filling it in.
He lowered a bucket of water down to Bobby before dialling 999 and then alerting the Phillips family, as he knew their dog was missing. Norfolk Fire and Rescue’s Urban Search and Rescue Team then set up a tripod with winches to lower a crew member into the well, bringing Bobby back up.
Mrs Phillips believes Bobby survived the fall because fresh soil in the well from the collapse at the top cushioned his fall.
Bobby was taken to the vet for a check-up yesterday. He had lost 3lbs – 10 per cent of his body weight – but was otherwise fine.
John Linden, watch manager for the Urban Search and Rescue Team, said: ‘It is incredible that he survived down there for so long… It’s a fantastic outcome.’