A spaniel in the works

Sage the spaniel was lacking in wisdom when she dozed off under an electric reclining chair — and found herself at the centre of a 999 fire rescue in Torquay. The bewildered pooch became trapped in the chair's mechanism when owner Ann Gaman decided to end her mid-morning sit-down.

But when she lowered the footrest with the 'remote' her King Charles Cavalier was caught in the moving parts. One of Sage's ears was well and truly wedged by pieces of metal, much to the dismay of 69-year-old Ann who immediately went into a panic about her spaniel in the works.

"I just didn't know what to do. I was in a panic. Sage was trapped for half an hour. If I had tried to free her from the moving parts she might have been hurt even more. In the end my neighbour rang the fire brigade and they were able to release her. They were brilliant."



The 999 call was made just before 11am. One fire crew, led by crew commander Stefan Belsten, attended the incident. He said afterwards: "It's not every day we get called to deal with a dog stuck in a chair.

"We didn't want to risk using the remote to free her because it could have made matters worse. Sage was just lying on the floor with her big fluffy ear stuck in the mechanism.

"In the end we used bolt croppers to snap a pin in the works and knock out another." He added: "Sage was all right afterwards. In fact she was as good as gold all the way through."