Heartwarming moment dog nick****d The Lucky One is pulled free after 18 hours trapped under Guatemala mudslide that killed five
Link to article (and video as I can’t get video to link here): Dog pulled free after 18 hours trapped under Guatemala mudslide that killed five | Mail Online
It is usually cats that have nine lives – but this fortunate dog had that and more after he survived a mudslide that trapped him underground for 18 hours.
Nick****d el Afortunado – The Lucky One – he lived through mudslides and chaos caused by torrential rains in Guatemala that have killed five people in recent days.
The animal somehow stayed alive despite being stuck in a subterranean tomb and then barked constantly in a bid to attract human attention.
A breath of fresh air: Afortunado appears for the first time after rescuers find him buried under mudslides in Guatemala
He was buried in Joya Grande village, north-western Guatemala, after an avalanche sent the mountainside crashing on to the primitive houses.
Jose Guerdola, one of the team members sent to search for survivors, said: ‘We were looking for people and always, always was this faint sound, like a permanent rapping or tapping.
‘We assumed it was someone trapped in a cellar who was hitting a pipe. ‘We dug and dug, and we sweated and slaved, and as we got closer we realised it was the barking of a dog.
‘When we broke through to where he was he jumped into our arms and licked our faces. Unfortunately there was no-one left alive in the rubble with him but we took him to safety.’
Good boy: The dog, nick****d ‘The Lucky One’ clambers to freedom after being trapped for 18 hours in Joya Grande village in north-western Guatemala
Bid for freedom: The dog wriggled his way out of a hole he had been trapped in for nearly a day after mudslides crashed down on a village in Guatemala
Local vets checked up on Afortunado and, apart from mild shock and dehydration, he was none the worse for his incredible ordeal
The excited pooch jumped in to the arms of his rescuers after being freed and licked their faces
Local vets checked up on Afortunado and, apart from mild shock and dehydration, he is none the worse for his ordeal.
He has been placed in the care of a local animal ****ter until a family can be found that will take him in.
Guatemala’s rainy season, which runs from May through November, dumps an average of up to 400 millimetres of rain per month, often causing severe flooding and deadly avalanches in the poor Central American nation of roughly 15 million people.