Terriers rescued from grain silo

QCS photo: Jerrene Bradley

Two terriers were uninjured after being rescued from beneath a grain silo.

Two dogs were rescued Thursday from three stories underground.

Gene Ross and his son Chris Ross, employees at Versatile Construction, were working when they could hear dogs barking from somewhere around the plant. They went looking around to find where the sound was coming from and finally were able to locate the two dogs, who were trapped under the grain silos.

A male terrier was in a pit in about 6 inches of water and a female terrier was above him on a narrow walkway.

Dr. Jean Corey of Tucumcari Animal Hospital was called to assist in rescuing the dogs. Corey climbed down a ladder and was able to tie a long rope around the male to pull it out of the pit. Ross and his son assisted.

The female dog was on the other side of the conveyer belt and wouldn't come to anyone. Ross went back up top to retrieve a catch hook from Corey's vehicle. Corey then took the male dog and crawled under the conveyer belt to try and get close enough to the female to catch her. It took her about 10 minutes to catch the dog.

Ross said he had no idea how the dogs ended up down there. If they had fallen through a manhole, he said, the dogs would have been hurt.

Corey looked the dogs over and said that they were in good shape; they had no broken bones, scrapes or cuts on them.