Dogrescue: A relieved family with their beloved pet: David, Saffron, Judy, Amber and Janneke. 83995 Picture: Stewart Chambers
LIA BICHEL
A FAMILY pet is lucky to be alive after SES crews worked for eight hours to free her from a large pile of wood on Sunday.
Narre Warren SES was called to a Devon Meadows property after a Jack Russell chased a rabbit into a large pile of cypress logs and branches.
Judy and David Button requested help at 12.45pm after they realised how difficult it would be for them to rescue Janneke, their 13-year-old dog.
The SES crew – which consisted of Catena Basile, Daniel Gould, Manny Thomson, Mark Baczynski and leader Damian Burns – went into action by cutting back the logs and branches in the six metre high and 12 metre wide wood pile.
Mrs Button said she and her husband, along with their teenage daughters Amber and Saffron, were anxiously awaiting the rescue. After several hours, they feared the worst.
“(Janneke) was whimpering all the time and didn’t know which way to go,” Mrs Button said.
“It was terrifying, because she is part of the family. We knew it would take a while but there was one point where we thought we may have to leave her – or that she could die from the wood collapsing.”
Luckily, with a lot of chain sawing and the assistance of Mr Button’s optic fibre camera unit to probe the wood pile, Janneke was rescued around 8pm.
Narre Warren SES media liason officer Keith Grant said it was one of the biggest animal rescues the crews had undertaken, but if they had to do a similar rescue again, they now have optic fibre camera equipment donated by Mr Button.
“This was gratefully accepted and should prove a valuable asset should we be called to assist in other rescue events of this calibre,” Mr Grant said.
Mrs Button said she was grateful to the SES for their perseverance in freeing their much loved pet.
“They just kept going, they didn’t stop,” she said.
“We are just glad she’s out. We don’t know what we would have done without her. I don’t know if she will stop chasing rabbits, but I don’t think she will be going near big wood piles anymore.”
