Dog stands guard for week until trapped friend found

Susan Wyatt | KING-TV

Show Caption Hide Caption Dog stays with trapped friend for a week until help arrives When a dog gets trapped in a cistern, her best friend stands watch over her for a week until she's rescued. Jen Markham (@jenmarkham) has the story.

Thanks to a loyal setter and a group of volunteers, two dogs were found safe after a week lost in the woods in Washington state.

Tillie, the setter, stayed with her doggie friend Phoebe for a week. She left each day to go find help. Phoebe a basset hound, was trapped in a concrete cistern in a ravine where Tillie stood guard.

The nonprofit animal rescue organization Vashon Island Pet Protectors had posted photos of the dogs on their Facebook page, hoping someone would spot them. On Sept. 14, they received a call saying that while they were out on their property, a "reddish" dog had come up to them a few times, before promptly heading back into a ravine.

Based on the tip, volunteers made their way into the ravine, said Amy Carey with VIPP. After a bit of searching, the volunteers heard a small one-woof response when they called out to Tillie.

A few minutes later they found her lying beside the old cistern with her head resting on the concrete wall.

"They knew that meant Phoebe was inside the cistern. Every breath was held and every doggie prayer offered that the peek over the rim would somehow find her safe," Carey said.

Both dogs were cold and hungry but are doing well.

Carey reminds people who lose their dogs to keep looking.

"Hope is an awfully hard thing to keep open and alive in the face of heartbreak, but it so important for happy endings for missing pets - or even for unhappy endings with closure," she said.