By PATRICK GOWER
Five weeks and two days after tumbling down an old mineshaft, Astro the dog was pulled to safety in a canvas sack.
The 8-year-old border collie apparently survived 37 days without food or water by living off moisture dripping down the shaft.
Her ordeal ended when 14-year-old Tommy Scadden came to her rescue.
Tommy was lowered down the shaft with a sack and torch and pulled the dog to safety - still lively, although somewhat slimmer.
Tommy said Astro was a "pretty crusty sight" when he first laid eyes on her in the mineshaft in Wakamarina Valley, between Nelson and Blenheim, on Sunday.
Tommy told the Herald he was lowered down the 5m hole to rescue the dog because he was "the only one who would fit."
"Sure, it was pretty scary," he said. "But I like dogs, so I was keen to get down there and get her out."
Last night, Astro was home happily munching on chicken and cottage cheese, but possum chasing will probably never hold the same attraction.
Astro's entombment ended when Tommy's father, Richard, was hunting on Saturday and looking for his own dog, who had disappeared.
He heard a noise and found Astro down the mineshaft. He dropped a goat leg down to tide the dog over, then went home and rang her Stoke owners, Tom Peart and Marian Fraser, whose number he had seen on a laminated sign about Astro at the track entrance.
"I remember seeing the sign and thinking these people really care about this dog. I thought if they could put so much effort in, why couldn't we?"
Distraught at their pet's disappearance, the couple had unsuccessfully combed the Wakamarina hills, rung dog rangers, advertised and put up posters in the area.
Astro had been hunting and accompanying Mr Peart as he cleared Department of Conservation tracks when she took a sudden nosedive into the mineshaft.
Mr Peart had all but given up on Astro when he got Mr Scadden's call. "He told me he had found Astro. I said I would make arrangements to remove the remains and then he told me she was still alive. After five weeks we had all but given up, but there you go. It's unreal."
The couple believe recent rain dribbling down the shaft saved Astro from dying of thirst.
But she now casts a smaller shadow.
Said Mr Peart: "She's probably lost about 12 or 13 kilos."
Astro the dog survives 37 days trapped in a mine without food
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