You’ve heard stories of pets reunited with parents years after going missing – and sometimes despite inexplicable distances between them – thanks to microchipping. But this rescue and reunification story involving an Australian Shepherd features an Apple AirTag at its core. (See what we did there?)
Australian Shepherd Sucked Down Drain
An Australian Shepherd named Seamus recently ran away from his dog mom Emilie Brill while they were on an afternoon walk in California. The 1-year-old pup ended up in a flood control basin and soon got swept away by the rushing water.
“He got away from me, and he just went down into this drainage,” Brill told ABC 7 Los Angeles. “The water was going so fast I think all it took was one paw in that water, and he was gone.”
The San Bernardino Fire Department arrived on the scene to try to find the missing pooch. As they searched, an employee at an RV facility nearby reported that he heard a dog barking and then saw Seamus going down a drainage channel.
“He followed Seamus and observed the dog had found a way out of the water into an access tube nearby,” the agency shared in a Facebook post. “Firefighters were flagged down & found Seamus in the tube staring back at them. He traveled nearly a mile from when he entered the storm drain. He miraculously made it out of the fast-moving water & was stuck at the bottom of the tube.”
Seamus’ collar had an Apple AirTag on it, which allowed the first responders to locate the best sewer drain through which to access the dog. They used a ladder to bring him back up to safety.
Thankfully, Seamus was not injured during the ordeal; in fact, the firefighters reported that the pup was in “good spirits” after rescuers brought him onto dry land.
Homeward Bound
Once Seamus was transported to the fire station, firefighters used an old-fashioned ID tag on the canine’s collar to contact his dog mom, who lives in Loma Linda, and arrange a reunion.
“I was just blown away by that level of response from our emergency services,” Brill said.
Though the firefighters didn’t know Seamus for very long, it appears the pooch made quite the impression.
“While we would have loved to make Seamus a fire station pup, glad we could reunite the dog back with his owners,” the San Bernardino Fire Department wrote on Facebook.
