A deaf puppy is back in the loving arms of her foster family after she fell into a crevice in their backyard in Huntsville, Alabama.
Rescuers worked for 30 hours to free the 7-week-old Australian shepherd mix named Toffee after she fell into the 50-foot crack that appeared after recent heavy rainstorms.
“We let them play and walk around like normal and I was standing on this ledge, when she came running toward me. All of a sudden, it was like ‘Where’d she go?’” Karen Smith, who is foster the puppy and three of her siblings, told AL.com. “I looked in this crack in the ground and could see her walking around at the bottom when I shined a flashlight on her.”
Volunteers from the Paint Rock Fire Department responded to the call for help after Chief Finis Johnson saw the story on WHNT News 19 and called the newsroom to ask how they could help.
PUPPY RESCUE: There’s a rescue effort underway in south Huntsville. A 7-week-old puppy fell down in a hole and has been trapped since Thursday evening. Many are hoping for a safe outcome for Toffee. Watch live coverage here: https://t.co/Soh7RYwJPr pic.twitter.com/5uQCFG4TRU
— News 19 (@whnt) June 29, 2018
The team worked diligently around the clock to save the puppy and ended up successfully freeing the pup by using a snare. Toffee was lured into the snare with sardines.
Applause broke out the moment the puppy was pulled up. “I still can’t believe she’s really out and she’s right here and I’m holding her,” Smith told WHNT.
“This is a miracle,” Smith added. “There’s no feeling like it. I still can’t believe it.”
“To every person that came, I mean every person that brought water, that brought the food, that brought generators, and lights. I mean there have been, it’s been an amazing outpouring of just kindness and sweetness,” Smith said.
Toffee was back to being a normal puppy playing with her litter-mates shortly after, showing just how resilient puppies can be.
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