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Burgeo dog 'lucky to be alive' after days missing, trapped in a hole

Nov. 16 was a bone-chilling afternoon in Burgeo when high school student Jared Meade and his friend Ethan Benoit decided to head out to the store, despite the outdoors feeling like -12 with the windchill.

Benoit took a shortcut, and when the pair met up again, he had made a disturbing discovery.

"He said, 'Jared, I've got bad news, there's a dog stuck in a hole'," said Meade.

The two stared down the hole — a gap in the foundation from a demolished building — to see Blackie, trapped more than a metre and a half below.

They didn't know it yet, but the small, mixed-breed had been missing from his home for more than 48 hours, as a vicious early winter storm battered the region with snow, winds and frigid temperatures.

"We thought the dog was dead at first because it wasn't moving," recalled Meade.

Winter Billard
Winter Billard

'He's dead, isn't he?'

Meade immediately contacted Winter Billard, a volunteer with Lucky Paws Kitty Rescue, for advice on what to do. She sent her husband Shawn up to check it out.

Shawn Billard lowered himself into the hole but Blackie, frightened and nervous, kept backing away. BIllard snapped a picture of the trapped dog and sent it to his wife, who recognized Blackie as belonging to a man who lived just minutes away, Albert Parsons.

"[My husband] went and knocked on Albert's door and he said, 'Are you missing a dog?' And he's like 'Oh my god, he's dead isn't he?'" Billard recounted for CBC Radio's Newfoundland Morning.

I just gave him a big yank and pulled him up like a fish. - Winter Billard

By the time both Winter and Shawn Billard arrived back on the scene, Meade had already lowered himself into the hole.

At first the skittish dog bared his teeth at Meade and backed away, but eventually, the teenager gained his trust, and the dog crawled into his lap.

From there the rescuers worked quickly, with Winter Billard throwing down a leash and Meade tying it around the dog's neck.

"I just gave him a big yank and pulled him up like a fish," she said.

Winter Billard
Winter Billard

"The dog was quite happy and quite skinny. And I think he's just happy to be out of the hole," she laughed. "It's been windy and cold, he's pretty lucky to be alive."

Billard said Blackie seemed none the worse for wear despite his ordeal, and was wagging his tail and sniffing his rescuers immediately after his release.

"The owner was pretty happy ... he was in tears and he could not thank Jared and Shawn enough, to be there to rescue his dog, because that's his companion right," said Billard.

With files from Newfoundland Morning

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