When sweet Basset Hound Phoebe fell into a concrete cistern in the Washington State woods, her best friend Tillie waited and stood guard for a week before leading a band of volunteers to Phoebe for rescuing.
The cistern was just too deep for Phoebe's little basset legs to get back out, leaving her stuck. Tillie, her red setter and best friend, only left Phoebe briefly each day, according to USA Today, enough to go look for help and then come back to wait with her friend.
Non-profit group Vashon Island Pet Protectors (VIPP) had posted pictures of the lost pair on their Facebook page, and on Sept. 14, they received a call saying a reddish dog was spotted on their property. The group wrangled together volunteers to go searching for the dogs and headed to the ravine where Tillie was last spotted.
Calling out the dogs names, they heard a woof in response to Tillie's name, and they soon found her lying on an old concrete cistern with her head on the 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," Amy Carey of VIPP said.
Down in the ravine was poor Phoebe, who had found some concrete rubble to stand on, keeping her out of the water, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Phoebe and Tillie's owners were elated with the rescue and safe return of their dogs, according to the New York Daily News. Carey and the rest of the rescuers called it a "very humbling example of the power of love."
