Story by Rebecca West
Images courtesy of Rural Metro Fire Department
This summer, the Rural Metro Fire Department had an unexpected guest of the best kind. The story begins on June 19th when someone rang the doorbell at Station 71 around 2pm. The reason for the visit was to inform them that a dog was trapped in a steel-lined hole about 3-4 feet wide and approximately 14 feet deep on Rex Street north of Valencia near I-10.
The purpose of the hole is still a mystery, but the lid was absent. We’re not sure if this constitutes an attractive nuisance, but for a young black Lab-pit mix who apparently fell in and became trapped, it definitely was. After the alarm was sounded, Engine 71’s A shift, along with Engine 81 and Tender 71, quickly leapt into action.
Once they arrived on scene, Captain Matthew Slanina of Engine 81 said they looked down to see a pair of big brown eyes staring back up at them. They lowered a ladder into the hole and firefighter MaKenna Garcia scrambled down to assess the situation. After determining that the dog was uninjured, they sent down a harness for Garcia to slip into and lifted her and the obviously stressed pup out.
From there, the grateful animal got to take a fire truck ride to a convenience store to grab some canine staples. Once they got him back to the station, he was fed and got a chance to chill in the AC. It was probably about this point that they began referring to him as Doug, a play on the word dug, as in dug a hole.
Thought to be about 1 because of the condition of his teeth and exuberant puppy-like behavior, there’s no estimation on how long Doug had been down there, but he seemed in good overall health. He was taken to a vet the next day to be checked out and scanned for a microchip, which he didn’t have.
He hung out at the station for a few weeks, but no one came forward to claim him. During his time there, he slept in the recliners, played in the bays with the various crews on shift, and had a great time in general. Eventually, a neighbor of one of the department’s fire inspectors ended up adopting Doug. Three cheers for our first responders and thanks for the happy ending!
