Last week, a dog named Violet in Dallas, Texas, found herself in a scary situation. While she was walking around a vacant lot next to her family’s house, she accidentally fell into a deep hole left behind from some unfinished construction work.
Violet’s terrified parents knew they weren’t going to be able to free her by themselves, so they called the local fire department for help.
All the firefighters were told on the phone was that there was an animal trapped in a hole on an abandoned property, so they didn’t know what to expect. When they arrived, they saw a few people gathered around a small dent in the ground, so they headed toward the group.
“You really couldn’t tell anything was going on until you could get up to the hole and look in there,”
Charles Abney, a battalion chief with Dallas Fire Rescue, told The Dodo.
The top of the hole was barely visible — it was only about 12 inches wide and was mostly covered with thick grass. So it was easy to see how a dog could not notice it and fall right in.
Only the top of the dog’s head was visible, so the firefighters were shocked when the owners informed them that Violet was a 200-pound mastiff.
“It was definitely the biggest dog I’ve ever seen,” Abney said.
The firefighters started working on getting Violet freed as quickly as possible. They started by widening the hole she’d fallen into, which revealed how deep the cistern was.
“[T]he dog was in about a foot of this really dirty-looking water,” Abney said.
It quickly became clear that lifting the 200-pound dog out of a deep crevice with a narrow entrance was not going to be a simple task. The firefighters called in a 10-person technical rescue team for extra support.
As the team worked, Violet stayed calm, despite the circumstances. Her parents stayed close by, which helped keep her relaxed.
“Luckily, the dog was super sweet,” Abney said.
One of the rescuers climbed into the cistern and secured a strap under Violet’s legs to help hoist her out. After 30 minutes of work, the firefighters managed to use the strap to lift Violet up out of the hole. They elevated her back legs, which allowed her to crawl out.
“[S]he was very, very eager to get out,” Abney said.
Violet’s parents were incredibly relieved and grateful to the firefighters for saving their pup’s life. Back at home, Violet got to rest and recover from her ordeal surrounded by her loving family.
