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May 26, 2009 9:10 am US/Central
Cat, Firefighters Help Rescue Dog From Drain Pipe
AURORA, Colo. (CBS) ―
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Tiki disappeared into the drainage pipe just after 9 a.m.
CBS
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Sundae alerted her owner that something was terribly wrong with Tiki.
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An Aurora dog is resting comfortably at home after being trapped in a drainage pipe for about eight hours on Sunday.
Tiki was out playing in Iowa Elementary School's grassy school yard when he suddenly disappeared. Tiki had been to the park many times before. Sunday, he was there with his owner, Lori Church, the other family dog, and the two family cats who often tag along since they live just a few houses down from the playground. One of those family cats, Sundae, alerted her owner that something was terribly wrong with Tiki.
"He came tearing back to me, yowling the whole time, letting me know that something happened," said Church. "She made sure that I followed her back over to where she was. The kitty is as much of a hero as the Aurora Fire Department. She took me over where the pipe was … and went in a few steps. We were a couple hundred yards away - where we had been sitting previously. The cat took me all the way back there and then I heard the dog inside there. I never would have known that he was in there at all if it hadn't been for the cat."
Tiki disappeared into the drainage pipe just after 9 a.m. After that, Church began working with concerned neighbors, the water department, and school security officers. They all worked together to try to get the dog out. Even Sundae the kitty sat with the crowd for about three hours until Church took her and the other pets home. Then she watched from the driveway.
Eventually the security officers called in Aurora firefighters, who had just rescued 15 ducklings in two separate occasions over the past couple of days after they fell through storm grates (All were reunited with their mothers).
"The first thing we did was started getting the dog fresh air," said Battalion Chief Marty LaRusso.
Firefighters used a fan to force air into the eight-inch diameter pipe. Tiki is about six inches in diameter and couldn't turn around one he went in.
"A search camera came in from one of the local pluming distributors. He came in with 100 feet of cable. We ran the search camera up inside but it collapsed inside because it wasn't strong enough. So we got some of our fire hose, charged it to 200 PSI and duct-taped the camera to the end of it."
Even after pushing the camera into the pipe about 120 feet, there was no sign of the dog. Tiki was quite a ways in. Then LaRusso realized that the slippery PVC pipe could easily act as a waterslide. In fact, they had used water to flush ducklings out of a similar pipe in a recent rescue. So they started pumping water into the pipe, with assistance from a passing rainstorm and Tiki was flushed out of a section of pipe they had cut open about halfway up the hill.
"He slid past us faster than we could grab him the first time and ran back up faster than we could grab him," said LaRusso. "Then we added more water. He came through a second time, we were a little bit more prepared, grabbed him and then handed him to his owner."
While it took firefighters just over three hours to get Tiki out, he had been in the pipe for about eight hours.
"About a dozen hands grabbed him and pulled him out with much cheering and applause from everybody," said Church. "It was a long day. He has like a carpet burn on his chest from scooting around in there ... but other than that, he is totally fine. He was happy to be home."
Aurora firefighters say it was a nice break from some of the more tragic calls that they had to go on that day; they had to deal with the deaths of five people. LaRusso said it was great to see a happy ending.
"I've been in the business 32 years," he said. "And I could still feel the hair tingling on my neck. It's exciting to see them cry and hold onto their pup. We were all soaking wet, we had been through two rainstorms, the neighbors were all watching ... and when the animal finally came out, there was a big roar of laughter and a lot of clapping. It was rewarding. It was our mini-version of a Nuggets game."
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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