x
Breaking News
More () »

Two dogs survive 22 days trapped in old Medical Lake missile silo

The dog's owner found herself walking near an old missile silo about 200 yards behind her house, and that's when she heard a bark.

MEDICAL LAKE, Wash. – For three weeks, the Donges family searched for their two German Shepherds that went missing from their Medical Lake home.

Days later, there was still no sign of them, despite posting online and putting up pictures all over town.

Jessica Donges had almost lost hope when she got the feeling she should look in her backyard one more time. She said she found a part of the back fence was broken, and went through it, then another fence on the other side.

She found herself walking near an old missile silo about 200 yards behind her house.

“You know, I don’t know what ever possessed me to kind-of think that I needed to search that area,” Donges said.

That is when she heard a faint noise.

“I just heard a single bark, and I had to go check it out,” she said. “When I walked through the door, I couldn’t even see, I couldn’t even see them. I just walked through the door and heard them barking and to the right of me was this gigantic hole.”

Her missing dogs Zeus and Ziva were in that hole, wet, cold and hungry, but alive.

“They were both down there, splashing in the water and they saw me and just started barking and freaking out, and you know, then I freaked out,” she said.

Donges called the fire department and got them out safely. They had survived on just the standing water in the pit they were trapped in.

“There’s no other explanation, it’s just luck,” she said. “My babies are my miracle.”

The pair of dogs lost a combined 55 pounds while they were trapped, and it will be some time before they are completely healthy and healed.

But Donges is just thankful they’re alive.

“Twenty-two days in a dark and damp environment and we are very blessed they’re not worse off than they are,” she said.

Before You Leave, Check This Out