A Labrador which got lost for 24 hours in the Peak District was eventually rescued after being found trapped down a 15ft hole - by another dog.
Eight-year-old Gracie was walking on marshland near Kinder Scout when her owner Guy Beggs, from Warrington, lost sight of her during poor weather conditions. Unbeknown to the 41-year-old, his beloved pet had plunged down a 4.5 metre pothole just yards away from the track they had been walking along on January 2.
Guy spent hours looking for the black Labrador even returning to his campsite to grab a torch before searching well into the night. In desperation, he put out an appeal on social media - which sparked a full-scale rescue mission joined by people from as far as Manchester, Bolton, and Leeds.
READ MORE: Woman sobs 'I love you' to her family as she's jailed for six years
Kind-hearted volunteers braved sub-zero temperatures to join the search for Gracie, which continued into the next day. They included Susan Jones, 50, of Derby, who joined the hunt with her Border Collie cross Lottie and her friend Lynn Baker, 59, as they were staying on the same campsite.
Dad-of-one Guy, who works in engineering, said: “My biggest worry is that there was a cliff edge down the path, and I was scared she’d skidded off the rock as the snow turns to ice. We spent a good hour looking around before my friend followed the tracks back to see if she’d gone down.
“I posted an appeal on a Facebook hiking group and within an hour there was 10,000 shares. There's a local canine search group called K9 Search and Rescue and they came down with a thermal heating drone.
"The amount of support we got was amazing. We got to 9/10pm that evening and we had to head back. We even had an ex-navy guy come, and we went out and covered 12 miles in and around the bog land. It was incredible the help we got."
While Susan and Lynn stopped for a drinks break, four-year-old Lottie began sniffing in shrubbery near the path before miraculously finding the hole Gracie had fallen into. Guy, along with another volunteer, abseiled down using a makeshift rope made out of dog leads to bring her back to safety after more than 23 hours.
Guy said: "When we found her, I got so emotional I broke down in tears, I was just so relieved. When she heard my voice she got more agitated, and we climbed down to get her. We gave her some biscuits, ham, and some water and she was back to normal."
Susan, who works as a teacher, said she was "amazed" by her hero dog's antics after she sniffed out missing Gracie. She added: “She stuck her head in this bush and I called her and she wouldn’t come back. I pulled her back and there was a very deep hole. I lay on the ground and there was two little eyes looking up at me.
“She's a clever little dog. She knew we were looking for something but she didn’t know what. It was just so amazing, the two dogs were playing all the way, kisses and all sorts. It was lovely. It was complete elation.
“We now want to raise awareness about potholes in the local area and to help K9 Search and Rescue going as their work is so important.”
Anyone interested in supporting K9 Search more information can be found here.
READ NEXT:
