Firefighters Rescue Dog Trapped Overnight in Well

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News

Sunday, July 01, 2007

By Dave Matlow

Hours of anxiety over a missing Dachshund ended happily early today after Westport firefighters rescued the animal from an abandoned well where it had been trapped overnight.
Pam Nistico holds her 1-year-old Dachshund Brody after his rescue by Westport firefighters early today from an abandoned well where he had spent the night on the family’s property at 292 Wilton Road. The newly-covered well is in the background. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

The dog’s owner, Pam Nistico, said she had walked 1-year-old Brody late Saturday night and then returned to her home on the grounds of her family’s Red Barn Restaurant, 292 Wilton Road. When she put him down, Brody playfully chased after the family cat.

After a while, Nistico became concerned when she could not find Brody. She and her daughter, Desiree, 19, and a friend searched frantically on nearby streets.

They called Westport police for help and even spotted a state trooper on the nearby Merritt Parkway where he had stopped a speeder and asked if he had seen the dog. The trooper used his flashlight to look into the woods off the parkway. But Brody was nowhere to be found.

She said they even checked the abandoned well but didn’t see or hear anything. “Maybe he was knocked out and he was in a little area that you couldn’t see very well in the darkness,” she said.

Frustrated, they gave up the search at about 2:30 a.m. “I went to bed sobbing,” Nistico said.

Then at about 5:30 a.m., Nistico went outside again. “I thought with daylight I might see something I couldn’t see in the dark,” she said.

“I whistled as I do to attract Brody and the cat. I then heard a weak whimper. I thought maybe I was imagining things--you know, maybe you want to hear something but it’s really not there.”

But it was, and it was coming from the well.

“I whistled again and heard a yelp,” she said.

She called police who summoned the fire department. Firefighters determined that Brody had fallen through the deteriorated plywood covering the 4-foot-deep well and had landed on the bottom, said Assistant Chief Gene Maloney.

After using meters to determine that the atmosphere in the confined space was safe for entry, Firefighter Mike Scalzo donned breathing apparatus and climbed down a ladder placed in the hole.

“He offered the dog cookies, wrapped the dog in a blanket and carried the dog out,” Maloney said.

Brody was uninjured but jittery, rescuers said. At one point, Brody “attempted to bite the hand that fed him,” Maloney said, but Scalzo’s protective gloves prevented serious injury.

Nistico said she was deeply grateful to police and firefighters who helped her find and bring Brody back to her. “They were all wonderful—just great,” she said.

Nistico, who had recently put an 18-year-old Dachshund named Bubba to sleep, said she adopted Brody after spotting him the Internet. He was in Kansas City, Mo. The dog, then 7 months old, had been abused and was looking for a home.

“We flew him in and just fell in love with him,” she said.

Posted 07/01 at 11:06 AM

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