Max's owner, Michele Bahl, held a drenched Max to her chest as she thanked Howell firefighters and police officers who responded to a neighbor's 911 call around 3:10 p.m. Tuesday.
The caller said that two girls were trying to get a dog out of a drain on Chelsea Ridge Court in the Chelsea Ridge condominium development east of Fowler Street and south of Warbler Way.
"I've always said, he's a Rottweiler trapped in a Yorkie body," Bahl said with a laugh. "He's not afraid of anything."
Max, it seems, enjoys chasing groundhogs in the wetlands behind Bahl's family home, which is in the 900 block of Meadow Lark Street, about 150 feet from Chelsea Ridge Court.
Bahl said she was cleaning her truck when she learned Max escaped the fenced-in backyard.
A neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said he saw two children get off their bikes and walk toward the wetlands, and then he heard a dog barking.
The neighbor initially believed the dog was in someone's yard; he went into his home until there was a knock at the door by one of the girls, who said there was a dog stuck in the drain.
The neighbor went to investigate and recognized the Bahls' Yorkie.
Howell firefighters and police had Max out of the drain within minutes.
Although wet, Max was calm as Bahl stroked his fur and carried him home.
(Livingston County Daily Press & Argus - August 1, 2012)
