RAMONA, Calif. — Mia, an 11-year-old Siberian Husky mix, is recovering at home after falling ten feet to the bottom of a mechanic’s well on private property in Ramona.
Making a bad situation worse, the well was filled with at least 2 feet of oil.
Her owners say Mia escaped Saturday morning by pushing down on a door handle.
They searched all over their neighborhood, but she was nowhere to be found.
Then, on Tuesday morning, a neighbor heard a noise coming from the hole in his garage.
“The original report that came in was actually of a possible coyote in a hole on this person's property,” said Lt. Talia Padilla with the county’s Department of Animal Services.
When she and fellow officers arrived and took a closer look, they saw Mia struggling to stay alive.
“The poor thing was exhausted. While we were trying to figure out the logistics of getting her out, you could tell she was just tired," said Padilla. "She wanted to put her dead down, but she couldn't. There was nowhere to put her head on.”
Working in a confined space with pitch-dark conditions, they were somehow able to get a couple of catch-poles on Mia.
“And then myself and another officer were able to lift her out,” Lt. Padilla said. “She was very heavy because she had a lot of oil socked into her fur.”
Once they got Mia out, they brought her to the Bonita Animal Shelter where Mia got a major bath and a visit from a veterinarian.
Lt. Padilla says Mia took it all with a smile.
“Man, she just - any handling that we've done with her - when we got her out and back to the shelter she was just so patient and so calm.”
The next goal?
Reuniting Mia with her owners. Fortunately, that was easy! “All of the animals that come into our care, we scan them for a microchip to see if we can immediately get them home to their owners,” Lt. Padilla said. “So we scanned her and we were able to find the owner's information. We called them when we got back to the shelter and the owner immediately came to pick up their dog. It was so great.”
Unfortunately, she did ingest some of the oil and is suffering from double pneumonia. But she was released from the hospital Wednesday to recover at home.