Dog rescued after 10 days trapped in fox hole

PERRY — Like any beagle, 7-year-old Daisy is known to wander.

She usually spends her days exploring the Post family’s acreage near their home on Page Road. And she’d always be home before nightfall.

That came to an abrupt end Oct. 30, when Daisy failed to return. Little did the Posts know she’d gotten herself into an extremely tight predicament.

“There wasn’t much worry at first,” said Diana Post on Saturday. “Until nighttime, you know?  When she didn’t come home.”

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Daisy isn’t known as a troublemaker. Yet she’d been critically injured a month before during a walk with the Posts.

They’d had a surprise encounter with a German shepherd and Daisy took the worst of it. She was treated at the Perry Veterinary Clinic for a badly torn abdomen, and somehow pulled through.

The diminutive beagle was gradually recovering at the time she disappeared.

So now Halloween had passed with no sign of Daisy. And the days turned into a week.

Diana and her husband, Mike Post, began to suspect Daisy’s injuries were too much to overcome, and maybe she’d wandered off to die. Or perhaps somebody picked her up roadside and dropped her off the Wyoming County dog shelter.

Their son David, 10, made missing dog posters. The family circulated them with no results.

“The more the days go by, you wonder if she’s dead or alive,” Mrs. Post said.

They didn’t realize it, but Daisy was quite literally underfoot.

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Daisy was missing 10 days when the Posts started putting away their deck furniture on a beautiful Friday afternoon.

Mrs. Post decided to take a walk along a nearby ditch to see if she could find any signs of the beagle. She approached the woods that make up part of their property.

“I just kept walking,” she said. “I got to the edge of the woods, and Roxy, our other dog was with me. I hollered to her, and I think when I hollered to her, Daisy heard me.”

Mrs. Post heard what sounded like a muffled bark. So she called once more and again heard what sounded like Daisy in the distance.

She called a skeptical Mr. Post, who arrived and hollered himself. And he heard the beagle too — funny thing was, when they any distance away from one certain spot, her muffled bark was even fainter.

Mrs. Post went to call David, who was visiting friends at the neighboring Dueppengiesser farm. And in the meantime, Mr. Post found the dog.

Brushing aside some leaves, he discovered a fox hole, and Daisy was trapped deep, deep inside.

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The Post family’s rescue operation began as darkness fell on the woods.

David arrived with his friends Jared, Ryan and Becca Dueppengiesser. So did Mr. Post’s brother Tim, along with family friends Scott Wolcott and Tim Post.

Daisy’s situation was dire. The beagle had managed to claw her way halfway through the approximately 10-foot-long fox hole, which had a single opening at each end.

She was trapped about four feet underground, with a tree growing above her.

Delicate work followed. The family chainsawed the tree’s roots away and dug carefully. David and friends monitored Daisy to make sure her face wasn’t buried while the work was under way.

The turning point came when Mike Dueppengiesser arrived with a backhoe. He gingerly dug a parallel trench, so the Posts could dig a little further and remove the trapped canine.

“You stand there, and you’re hoping they don’t hit her,” Mrs. Post said. “It was pretty intense.”

Daisy went back to the Perry Veterinary Clinic for another two days of treatment. She was severely dehydrated and had lost eight pounds over the course of the 10 days.

She was also filthy from the days underground and needed a bath.

Her left rear leg suffered abrasions and nerve damage which David said may never heal completely. But she’s getting around and is recuperating inside the family’s home.

“It took us three hours to get her out,”  Mrs. Post said. “We finally pulled her about 7:30 p.m. I guess, or eight o’clock … That’s why Daisy sounded so faraway. The further we got from that spot, calling her name, we didn’t hear it anymore, because she was underground.”

As for Daisy’s holiday post-burial?

She’s been getting plenty of treats, including her share of skin and fatty material from the Thanksgiving turkey.

“She’s O.K.,” Mrs. Post said. “Happy to be home.”