A grim end was looking likely for an ageing retired police dog which had fallen into a rocky hole on a Pilbara fishing trip, until a resourceful police officer was able to adapt his gun holster to make an unlikely rescue.
It had been looking like a good day out when the dog’s owner, Cortlan Bennett, landed a nice-looking fish on the rocky groyne at Point Samson, on the Pilbara coast.
Mr Bennett pulled the fish onto the rocks, but it came off and fell down between a gap in the rocks.
What started as a minor annoyance quickly escalated into a serious problem for Mr Corbett’s 14-year-old Alsatian, Indi.
Really, we were just standing there and we were stuck. We didn’t really know how we were going to get him out.
“The dog was a bit curious, and he started getting up onto the groyne to see what was going on,” Mr Corbett said.
“Unfortunately he also slipped down the rocks and ended down the bottom of a hole.”
The gap in between the boulders just happened to be the perfect size to get an unbreakable hold on the unfortunate dog.
“The hole was only big enough for him to go in, and it was just impossible for my wife and I to get him out, poor bugger,” Mr Bennett said.
Attempts to pull the dog out by scruffs of skin caused the frightened animal to bite the hand of his owner.
“He’s had a bit of a chew on my hand, you know the hand that’s grabbing some of his skin, to sort of say, ‘Let go’,” Mr Bennett said.
“We went down again to try and get him out a second time, and this time we pulled him and he gave me a really good nip on the finger and did a bit of nerve damage.”
With the dog still firmly wedged in the rocky hole, Mr Bennett also then had to contend with a seriously injured hand.
Realising he needed help, Mr Bennett called police at the nearby Roebourne station.
When they arrived half an hour later, they realised there was no simple solution to rescuing an Alsatian prone to biting its rescuers.
“It was pretty clear to them that it wasn’t going to be easy to get him out either, so they called in the fire brigade,” Mr Bennett said.
It was really a stroke of genius for this officer to just look down at his thigh and go, ‘Yeah, why don’t we use this as a muzzle?’
“The firies turned up and they had the jaws of life with them and we were looking at just trying to push the rocks apart.”
But the precarious jumble of rocks trapping the dog made the option too risky.
With police and firefighters at a loss as to how to rescue the dog, Mr Bennett and his wife faced the possibility this was going to be the end of the line for Indi.
“Really, we were just standing there and we were stuck,” Mr Bennet said.
“We didn’t really know how we were going to get him out.
“The thought of him being at the bottom of that hole and being crushed by rocks or not being able to get out, and this being our last moment with him, we were pretty sad about it to be honest.”
But in the moment when all hope seemed lost, Roebourne police officer Jay Ravat was struck by inspiration.
“He sort of looks down at his gun holster… and there’s an elastic band that holds the weapon to his thigh,” Mr Bennett said.
It was almost fitting that in his twilight years, and in his hour of need, the police returned the favour.
“So he takes the elastic band out of his gun holster, and he lengthens it, and he sort of makes a few adjustments, and he gives it to me and he says, ‘Can you make a muzzle out of this?’
“It was really a stroke of genius for this officer to just look down at his thigh and go, ‘Yeah, why don’t we use this as a muzzle?’”
Mr Bennett was able to place the gun holster strap around the dog’s head, which prevented rescuers being bitten, as well as seeming to relax the dog.
“The same officer, Jay, was able to sort of get in there and get a really firm grip on Indi,” Mr Bennett said.
“And then Jay gives him one final big yank and finally gets him out. I tell you what, it was such a relief.
“I must admit I shed a couple of tears because it was pretty emotional for my wife and I.”
A quick check showed Indi had escaped with minor injuries from his three-hour ordeal, but Mr Bennett’s hand injury was more serious.
“He’s gone through one of the nerves in my finger, so I’ve lost the feeling in that,” he said.
Despite the injury, there are no hard feelings between dog and master.
And Mr Bennett thinks it was particularly fitting that officer Ravat was instrumental in rescuing the retired police dog.
“It was almost fitting that in his twilight years, and in his hour of need, the police returned the favour,” he said.
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