Jack Russell Missing For Two Days Found On 13th Floor Ledge Of Apartment Building
Elbie, a small Jack Russell, is back home safe after a terrifying ordeal that left her stranded on a narrow ledge 13 storeys above the ground for two days.
Her owner, Alex Dobrin, was overseas when she went missing while being looked after by his 18-year-old son, Jake. Panic set in when they realized she had vanished from their 13th floor apartment on Saturday evening, and at first, they couldn’t understand how she could have escaped.
“I get a call on that day, that evening, with Jake panicking, saying, ‘We’ve lost Elbie. She’s not here’,” Alex later recalled.
At first they thought it would have been impossible for the small dog to have gotten outside. But early on Monday, a neighbour in a nearby apartment block contacted Alex to tell him she had spotted a black and white flash of fur trapped between the window and the ledge of the building.
That was confirmed when another neighbor used a drone. Elbie was wedged between a window and a ledge on the outside of the high-rise, having somehow squeezed through a narrow gap in the potted plants and made her way along the building’s exterior. She had walked halfway around the building (which is about 45 metres above ground) along a ledge that is just 10 centimetres wide!
Rescue crews were called in and it took multiple teams several hours of careful work to safely reach her and bring her back inside.
After being rescued, Elbie was taken to a veterinary hospital where she stayed for observation due to dehydration and concerns about muscle strain from being stuck for so long. Thankfully, she recovered quickly and was back to her usual self within two days.
When she finally returned home, Elbie began playing with her canine companion as if nothing had ever happened.
If anyone has had lasting effects of the incident it’s Jake who said the whole ordeal was very stressful. He has blocked off the spaces Elbie slipped through and plans on putting up a permanent barrier when his dad returns.
A frightening two days, a delicate rescue, and a very happy ending for a little dog who somehow beat the odds on a high-rise ledge.