NEWS: Woof!

Mark McLaughlin
Edinburgh Evening News
June 13, 2008

WHEN Buster the dog got trapped in a hole, it looked as if it would take every tool at the fire service's disposal to free him.

Flushed with success after rescuing a cat from a sink pipe using a vacuum cleaner, the firefighters set about freeing the troublesome terrier from his hiding place in a protected badger sett.

But after deploying a major incident unit, complete with the sort of gear normally reserved for locating earthquake survivors, the firefighters were forced to abandon their search - only for six-year-old Buster to simply crawl out of his own accord.

Fire crews from Newcraighall used a tiny camera mounted on a long flexible cable to try and find the lakeland cross terrier after it crawled into the hole in Davidson's Mains Park yesterday.

The same unit had saved a six-hour-old kitten earlier in the week after it became trapped in a Dunbar kitchen.

But they had to abandon their efforts after being told they could not dig up the protected badger habitat.

Buster's owner Dougie Caddow, 57, said: "I couldn't believe it. I thought I'd never see him again.

"I didn't know it at the time, but friends were saying behind the scenes that it was a 100-to-one chance he'd make it out of the sett alive."

After the firefighters gave up the search, Mr Caddow returned home only to hear that his beloved pet had emerged.

Mr Caddow added: "I had just got him back from the kennels where he was staying while I was on holiday. I felt bad for leaving him so I bought him a big sirloin steak. After the worry he's caused me he'll be getting none of that today."

The firefighters had been preparing to start digging in search of the dog but were prevented from doing so by an Scottish SPCA officer who said they would require clearance from Scottish Natural Heritage.

Senior Inspector John Toule, of Edinburgh SSPCA, said: "Badgers are a protected species and authorities require permission from SNH before they are allowed to disturb badger setts for any reason.

"In this case, because the crews did not have a definite location, that clearance would have been unlikely."

On Monday, 26-year-old Claire Coutts was reunited with her newborn kitten after curiosity almost got the better of the animal and it needed to be sucked out of a pipe using a nozzle from a Hoover with a sock placed over the end.

Colin Emerson, of Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service, said: "Fire crews have been called to rescue animals three times in the last week, which is quite unusual.

"We normally attend around 15 to 20 incidents a year. We were called out to rescue a cow that had become trapped in a fence, but by the time we got there the cow had managed to free itself.

"It provides valuable training should a major incident occur and they find themselves dealing with a human who is trapped."