Puppy fell 60ft down into a water well!!!

This was one of the most challenging rescues of my life!!! 😰

After a full day of work here in Los Angeles, I received a call about a critical emergency - all the way on the border between California and Oregon!

You can skip reading the blog, and I will just ask that you join us today with a special end-of-year donation so we can continue saving lives. Your donation today will be DOUBLED and could be TRIPLED!
 

Cory Mitcham texted me this picture to the Hope For Paws emergency line:
 

She told me about a puppy who fell down a water well in Macdoel, California (population: 143 people). I was in my car (after completing another rescue) and was on my way to CARES, so I asked her to please get me the contact information for the people on the ground there who could tell me more about this situation.

I quickly learned from David Scott and Jovahny Vazquez that the puppy had fallen into the water well three days ago and that all rescue attempts had failed! The local Fire Department also joined the effort but said they had no way to save the puppy's life.

Cory, who has been following my work for 20 years now, remembered seeing the rescue video of Jessie, and she figured that I should be able to save him.
 

Jovahny, who was there for three days, kept throwing food down and with his sister tried every trick they could think of. Over the phone, he told me that he estimates the well to be about 100-110 feet deep!!! I was really worried about the 110 ft. option because my sewer camera can only go down 100 ft. 

He then told me that local farmers decided to kill the puppy that evening and end his misery. I told him: DO NOT let them shoot or drown the puppy and that I am on my way (it's a 650-mile drive or 1,000 kilometers after I've been working for 12 hours that day already).

Jovahny, who lost all hope at this point, tried to discourage me from coming all this way; he didn't want me to waste my time. I told him I was the only hope for this puppy and shared Jessie's video with him just to increase his confidence in my abilities. The one thing I asked him to do was to meet me at the location and assist me.

The drive was so long!!! By midnight, I reached Sacramento, and I had to pull over and sleep for one hour just so that I could drive the next five hours safely. By 6:30 A.M., I reached the rescue location—a remote location in farmland—no address, just a pin on the map. 

Unlike Jessie's rescue - this one was much tougher! The well was deeper, and I had this bulky water pump going all the way down! I called the puppy, but I didn't hear a sound… this was not a good start.

It is important to know that in the past year, we had two more calls about kittens in wells - one in Ohio that ended with the kitten freezing to death a couple of hours before I got there, and another one I did with Loreta where the kitten drowned just 20 minutes before we got to the location (in Northern California). 😢😢 

I lowered my sewer camera and was relieved to see that the well was “only” 60ft deep and that the puppy was alive!!! I had no idea if all his bones were broken, but I knew I had to move fast because it was extremely cold down there and every breath may be his last.
 

Jovahny joined me, and we worked together to try to save the puppy!!! The puppy was not very responsive, it was extremely cold down there, and, I struggled to get the loop around his neck.
 

After 3.5 LONG hours, I finally managed to get the loop around the puppy's neck!!! (I was really hoping to get it around his torso, but that was not possible). I warned Jovahny that it was possible the puppy would die during this attempt from strangulation but explained that we had no other choice.
 

I pulled him as quickly as possible… It took 1 minute and 5 seconds to pull Jessie (the kitten), as he got stuck along the way, but I managed to bring the puppy up in 32 seconds!!!
 

We immediately removed the loop from around his neck - PHEW!!!!!!!!!!! 😅👍

I decided to name the puppy from the well - Wellington. 

I immediately gave him some sugar water with a syringe, and even though I was equipped with an IV to give him fluids, I determined it wasn't urgently necessary and elected to follow Jovahny to Klamath Falls in Oregon, where his sister, Jocelyn Vazquez alerted the team at Pet Medical Center to expected our arrival. They quickly gave him fluids, pain killers, X-rayed him, and discovered that NOTHING was broken; he suffered from minor head trauma and some soft tissue pain, but within an hour, we were both in a motel for a much-needed NAP! 

I can't stress this enough - this baby would have been dead without our supporters!!! 💝💝💝

Driving 1,300 miles/2,000km (round trip) is like driving from Tijuana, Mexico, across the United States, all the way to Vancouver, Canada!!! It is exhausting, dangerous, and expensive, and I can do it only when we have funds for missions like this.

If you are not a Hope For Paws member yet - please join us today! A small donation from many new members will help us save these precious lives. If you donate today, your donation will be DOUBLE, and it could be TRIPLED!

The happy news is that Jovahny's mom and dad decided to adopt Wellington, and I went to visit them over the weekend. This kid is now 7 months old, weighs 65 pounds, and is still growing!!!

This video is dedicated to Harold E. Hafliger II, who loved Hope For Paws and recently passed away. His caretaker, Amanda Dunlap, shared with me that they would always watch Hope For Paws rescue videos together. ❤️

Harold recently passed away and left a generous donation to Hope For Paws in his will, and we are honored to carry out his legacy.

Amazingly, Harold is from Klamath Falls - the same town where Wellington found his loving forever home! If Harold was still alive, he would have lived just 12 minutes away from Wellington. I am so sad he missed him by a couple of months, but I know he enjoys watching him from above. 🤗

Please don't forget to make a plan for your pets this year. We partnered with FreeWill so you can create your own Will / Living-Trust for FREE and ensure your pets will always be protected.
 

His family just started an Instagram page for him and if you'll follow him, you'll keep seeing him as he grows: https://www.instagram.com/wellingtonthegreat_

Thank you so much for being a part of our team and for enabling me to go on these missions.

Have an amazing 2025!!!

Eldad