'Drano' -- the dog -- unclogs pipe

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August 23, 2007

By Debby Woodin The News and Tribune Thu Aug 23, 2007, 01:10 AM EDT

JOPLIN, Mo. — It wasn’t tree roots or a cave-in that clogged the sewer drain at the Joplin Humane Society.

It was an itty, bitty six-week-old boxer mix puppy who was dubbed “Drano” after he wriggled 35 feet down a sewer pipe and had to be rescued.

Judge Richard Copeland, president of the humane society board, said a plumber had to be called to the shelter at on Thursday evening after a shelter worker thought she heard a puppy crying from under the concrete floor of the dog runs at the shelter.

Shelter manager Deeanna Leinmiller said employees were making the rounds before the shelter closed that day when the distant yelping of a pup called attention to the little dog’s plight.

A plumber with camera equipment to search a drain pipe was called and the camera caught sight of the dog stuck in a six-inch sewer pipe. The plumber had to go further down the line and dig another hole, opening up the sewer pipe in a second location, to reach the dog.

Leinmiller said the puppy, which is only about six weeks old, had escaped a pen with two litter mates and had somehow wormed his way into the pipe. “We don’t know how he got in the drain,” she said.

It took about two hours to extricate the pup in the 100-plus degree weather Thursday. The pup had to have a bath and was hungry, but seemed otherwise unhurt, Leinmiller said.

Leinmiller and Copeland said they had seen similar rescues on shows dealing with animals on television.

“I’ve been here 10 1/2 years and that’s a first,” though, for the local shelter, Leinmiller said. “Usually, they escape and they wander the hall or into another cage and that’s about as far as they go.”

On Monday, the pup and one litter mate were adopted by Linda David, of Webb City. She had gone out to the shelter to check for her lost Shih Tzu and fell in love Drano, one of his litter mates, a Great Pyrenees puppy, and a Chihuahua-miniature pinscher mix. “I couldn’t leave them,” she said, so she adopted all four.

She took the dogs home, bathed and flea dipped them, and her 13-year-old daughter renamed them.

Drano became Rocky, which the Davids felt a more befitting name for a boxer.

Debby Woodin writes for The Joplin (Mo.) Globe.

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