Dog trapped underground for four days rescued

Gordon Bottomley coming out of a hole in the ground holding Sherlock the Lakeland terrier.  Mr Bottomley is wearing a light chequered shirt and brown trousers and he covered in dust, including on his face and clothing. He is standing at the entrance of a narrow underground tunnel, which is as tall as the length of his body, from his shoulders to his toes. Sherlock is in his arms and he is the same colour as the sandy soil surrounding them.Image source, Mike McGrath
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Volunteer Gordon Bottomley dug a 6ft hole to free Sherlock

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A dog trapped for four days in a badger sett was reunited with its owners after a search involving drones, firefighters, search dogs and volunteers.

Mandy McGrath was walking her Lakeland terrier Sherlock at Brampton's Ridgeway Woods, near Carlisle, when she lost sight of him as he chased a rabbit.

Suspecting he was stuck underground, she called her husband Mike for help, sparking a long search operation involving a Middlesbrough-based rescuer.

"The hardest thing to deal with was that you've got this little thing who's entirely dependant on you to help them and take care of them. I was unable to do any of that for those four days and it's absolutely heartbreaking," said Mr McGrath.

It took countless attempts to locate the terrier before he was freed last week from the inactive badger sett, 6ft (1.8m) underground.

Gordon Bottomley from Middlesbrough, a volunteer with the Fell and Moorland Terrier Club, managed to find and safely extricate Sherlock, with help from his own terrier Shrek who is trained to search.

Sherlock lying at the bottom of a tight sandy hole. His body is barely visible as it is the same colour of the sand around him and he is covered in dirt. He is wearing a white and orange collar, which is reflecting the light coming from the opening in the ground. His face is almost buried in the ground.Image source, Mike McGrath
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Sherlock was found trapped at the bottom of an inactive badger set

"To see someone's beloved pet come out and their reaction - the grin was from ear to ear," said Mr Bottomley, who owns 12 terriers and volunteers for the club which specialised in underground search and rescue of working dogs.

"The terrier is the only dog that will go below ground and seek out vermin and that's why, over hundreds of years, they've been bred for that purpose," Mr Bottomley explained.

Mr and Mrs McGrath were relieved their pooch, which they have owned for four and a half years, had survived the ordeal.

Friends of the couple were initially drafted in to look for Sherlock, using drones and their own dogs to help look around the area where his tracker last detected him above ground.

It wasn't until a day later that they managed to get a vet out to confirm the badger sett where they believed he was trapped was inactive - a requirement for firefighters to be able to intervene.

But despite using a thermal imaging camera, the fire service also struggled to detect the terrier.

Mike McGrath crouched down and holding his Lakeland terrier Sherlock by his lead. They are in a grassy area and Mr McGrath is looking at the camera and smiling. He is wearing a blue fleece and grey trousers and has short white hair and a beard.Image source, Mike McGrath
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Sherlock was reunited with his owner Mike McGrath after four days

On the third day of the search, a hole was dug near Sherlock's last known location after the gamekeepers' dog, fitted with a special tracker, made another attempt at finding him.

This proved to be a vital move as, although Sherlock was not found there, it provided ventilation to the terrier a few feet away, which rescuers said was likely to have kept him alive.

"Had that not been done, we might have been too late because of the tightness of the hole," Mr McGrath said.

He said Sherlock likely got his face stuck in the hole while chasing a rabbit and became unable to turn around or backtrack due to the sandy soil.

He added: "Claustrophobia is my worst nightmare, so I wasn't sleeping well, I know my wife wasn't sleeping well."

Their efforts were followed on social media by the couple's friends around the world, from South Africa to Australia, as well as worried locals who joined the search.

"It's extraordinary," Mr McGrath said.

"You suddenly find out just how interested people are in helping, particularly those who've got dogs and are familiar with the kind of feelings you might have."

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