Puppy saved from 2.5m soakhole

Liz Kite could not believe it when she found their puppy trapped underneath the deck of her Welcome Bay home. Photo / Andrew Warner

Firefighters have rescued a 4-week-old puppy from a 2.5m-deep soakhole.

Stan and Liz Kite could not believe it when they traced the cries of their puppy to an unknown soakhole under their Welcome Bay deck.

The couple breed dogs and have four Yorkshire terrier puppies but one went missing Sunday night.

Mr Kite said they had put the puppies outside on the deck late in the afternoon "and one of them decided to walk off the deck and into the garden".

"When we were trying to find it later, [Liz] could hear this crying and whimpering. We soon tracked it down," Mr Kite said. "Unbeknown to us, there was a soakhole there. It would have been 2.5m deep and about 300mm wide."

The Kites did not realise there was an uncovered soakhole under their deck, let alone that the puppy had gone exploring there.

"It was a surprise," Mr Kite told the Bay of Plenty Times.
In effort to rescue the upset puppy, the Kites began to rip up their timber deck to reach it but the soakhole was too deep.

"I didn't really have anything to reach that far. We weren't too sure what to do - so we rang the fire brigade."

Greerton firefighters arrived and with the Kites hatched several plans to rescue it.

While Mr Kite began taping some poles together, one firefighter tied a snare knot at the end of a piece of rope and threw it down the soakhole.

"I'm not sure which part of the puppy they got but they managed to wrap it around the puppy and pull him out," Mr Kite said.

"He was a happy little puppy."

The puppy was not hurt but was "a little shaken" when it came out.

"Yorkshire terriers, they're pretty small dogs anyway and as puppies they're the size of kittens," Mr Kite said.

"It was put back with its brothers and sisters. We gave it a nice warm drink and mum was there to look after it.

"It was really lucky. If it had been raining, it would have been a different story."

A grate has since been installed on the top of the soakhole.

Mr Kite spent most of his day yesterday repairing the damaged deck.

Greerton fire brigade station officer Steve Wright confirmed firefighters were initially unsure what to do until one came up with the snaring idea.

The puppy was yapping and upset, he said.

Mr Wright echoed Mr Kite's comment that it was fortunate it was not raining.