Henry the dog saved by doorbell after spending four days stuck down rabbit hole

A border terrier who got stuck down a rabbit hole has had a lucky escape thanks Knutsford Fire Station’s animal rescue unit and a doorbell. Dog owner Beverley Leonard called on the service of the fire and rescue team last week after seven-year-old Henry went missing near his home in Prestbury, Cheshire. Henry had run into a field and disappeared down a hole, but as he didn’t bark much, his owner found it extremely difficult to locate him.



After a three-day search, the animal rescue unit from Knutsford Fire Station were called to help. The crew used a ‘snake eye’ camera for confined spaces and spent several hours searching the fields where Henry went missing. The search was called off after the crew could find neither sight nor sound of Henry – but one rescuer’s remark proved a lightbulb moment for Beverley. A crew member said that if Henry would just bark they would have much more chance.



A distraught Beverley remembered that the one thing Henry did bark at was her doorbell. She raced home, ripped the door bell off her front door, grabbed the amplifier, raced back to the fields and played it into every rabbit hole they could find. “It must have been just about the last hole in the last field, and we were about to give up, when we heard him,” said Beverley. “I rang the fire service’s animal rescue unit again, they'd said they would come back if there were any developments, and they got her quickly.



“They had to saw through a holly bush and dig until they got to Henry. When they got him up it was like we’d won the World Cup. Everyone was cheering and so happy Henry was fine.” A healthy Henry is now back at home, safe and well, and Beverley is full of praise for his heroes. “Every one of them was incredibly sympathetic and they didn’t want to leave even when we though all was lost,” she said. “We couldn’t have saved him without everything those firefighters did.”

There's a news video here.