TERESA FISHER
JOHANNESBURG – A stray dog running on the highway has been rescued by a Good Samaritan, but it was not the only creature saved that day.
Gary Bennetts was driving on the R21 highway, just past Diepsloot, when he spotted a dog in the middle of the road. It was lying next to a drain. He called the Randburg SPCA, who said that every time they tried to capture the dog, it ran towards the traffic and they were concerned it would be run over.
Bennetts, a FreeMe volunteer, decided to try to collar it anyway. “When I climbed out of the car the dog ran up to me, tugged the bottom of my trousers and tried to guide me in the direction of the drain. That’s when I heard a puppy barking in the drain,” he said.
He called the SPCA again and asked for assistance.
But when driver Jonas Molefe and a kennel assistant got into the drain, the puppy ran into a tunnel. “As a last option, I suggested lowering the Staffie down the drain thinking the puppy would be attracted to it. It worked!” Bennetts said.
When the puppy was brought to the surface, it turned out to be a Chow/German Shepherd cross, while the other dog was a Staffordshire bull terrier cross. “It amazes me that this dog was probably there for days trying to attract somebody’s attention to save a puppy that didn’t belong to it,” he said.
Both the puppy and the Staffie have now been adopted. – CNS.