A dog owner has shared the dramatic moment he was reunited with his beloved dog – after the pet was trapped underground for three days.
Simon Rayner, a pub owner from Cumbria, posted a video showing the dog, named Ruby, being rescued after she had went missing from her home last week.
It’s thought the adventurous terrier had climbed into a hole – a favourite pastime – before a large rock had fallen and blocked the entrance, leaving the terrified pet underground with no way out.
The nerve-jangling clip captures the Lake District rescue, showing a friend of Rayner’s digging a deep hole into rocky earth with a spade – and surrounded by other heavy-duty tools – before he catches a glimpse of Ruby’s nose poking out of the ground.
During the video, which has now had more than 140,000 likes and was published on the Instagram account @simonrayner, the man is then heard trying to reassure the stricken dog, gently saying ‘good girl’.
As Rayner looks on, he questions whether she might be ‘attached to something’ before willing her out, saying: ‘C’mon Ruby, out you come…little bugger’.
After some more careful digging, the dog’s owner manages to grab the bedraggled dog’s legs – as she whimpers – and drag her up and out to safety.
He scoops the dusty dog into his arms before whisking her off to a local vet for care.
Ruby, ruby, ruby! After three days of searching for his lost pet, dog owner Simon Rayner, who lives in Cumbria, was alerted to a patch of stony ground after a friend heard tiny noise
A video posted on Simon’s Instagram page @simonrayner showed the dramatic rescue of Ruby play out
Rayner told his followers that the family had been alerted to the spot after a friend had heard ‘a tiny noise’.
He added: ‘After much digging, we managed to get her out.
‘As you can imagine she was very weak but she’s at @oakhillvetgroup now and they are getting her fluids back up and doing blood tests etc.’
After a difficult week trying to find the missing pet, he wrote: ‘I just wanted to say such a huge thank you to all of the people who have been searching, messaging, sharing posts and calling over the past 3 days, both friends and strangers.
‘You are all the type of people that makes life all the sweeter. Thank you.’
Earlier in the week, the pet owner had posted a photo of the black and brown terrier, revealing she hadn’t been seen and the family were growing increasingly fearful for her safety.
He wrote: ‘Our incredible little Ruby has been missing since Sunday afternoon in the Underbarrow area. She is prone to going into holes in the ground and I’m so worried that she has got stuck.’
The dog owner also revealed he’d been targeted by scammers after posting the message, saying he’d been offered services that ‘are clearly not real’, adding: ‘Shame on them to prey on people at a time like this.’
After man and dog were reunited, people said the story had touched their hearts in the comments after the post.
In need of fluids and food, a bedraggled-looking Ruby was then whisked off to a nearby vets for treatment
One wrote: ‘Hurrah! So glad you found her’ while another added: ‘Bless her beautiful heart. You will all sleep well tonight. So so happy for you all.’
A third added: ‘Love this miracle! How in the world did you ever find her underneath all that dirt?’
After collecting the pet from the vets, Rayner said you’d hardly know the ordeal Ruby has been through, saying she’d bounced back to near full health.
He penned: ‘You’d never believe Ruby had spent 3 days underground when we picked her up from the vets, barely a scratch on her.
‘She has lost a little weight but gradually getting back to eating normally and is now fully hydrated again.’
