Jane Adams has praised the ‘exceptional teamwork’ and ‘outstanding leadership’ of the ten Guildford firemen who helped to dig out two of her wheaten terriers, Nellie, and her mother, Bessie.
Mrs Adams said her husband was walking the pair and Bessie’s son, Scuby, in the Chantry Woods in the morning. “He had not been very long when he phoned to say two of the dogs had gone missing,” she said.
“I then joined him and we were walking around the woods for some hours looking for them. Nobody had seen them anywhere and we were getting very concerned.”
Later in the day Mrs Adams was told by another dog owner that they should be listening to the ground for them in case they had gone down a woodland animal’s burrow.
“By that time it was late in the afternoon,” she said. “That is when we heard something. There were various holes in the woods, and fortunately we had gone to the right hole.”
While looking for her dogs, Mrs Adams also had to go back and forth to Holy Trinity Church, where her two daughters, Lottie and Summer, were singing in the girls choir.
“I told my daughters to pray for a miracle,” Mrs Adams said. “We had no idea where the dogs were.”
She and her husband started digging with spades in the woods, and after thinking it would be impossible to find the hounds, they decided to call the fire brigade.
The crew were called to the scene at 5.30pm and spent around six and half hours digging until eventually the dogs were found and reunited with their owners.
Mrs Adams said her pets must have been five to six feet underground. When they came out they appeared unfazed by the experience and simply shook themselves off as they were caked in mud.
“It was probably the worst Christmas eve ever, but the best Christmas present we could ever ask for,” Mrs Adams said. “It would have been awful to come back on Christmas morning saying we haven’t got them. It was a real ordeal.”
“I always had hope that we would find them. I never gave up hope.”
The family will still take the dogs to the Chantry Woods, but will be keeping them on a lead for the time being to avoid a repeat situation.
Mrs Adam wanted to thank the firemen from the White Watch who were on duty that evening.
“They worked extremely hard," she added. “I know it is their job, but you really felt they worked exceptionally hard to find them."
(Get Surrey - Jan 4, 2013)
