A 10-year-old Great Pyrenees found himself in a tight situation after he somehow found his way into a culvert near his home.
Cheatham County Animal Control posted photos from Wednesday's rescue on its Facebook page.
Jack’s owners noticed he was missing after he failed to eat his morning meal. They heard whining coming from a 15-inch-wide culvert near their house and called 911.
"He was in so much pain, I guess he just couldn't go anymore. He just couldn't hardly catch his breath," Pete Greco, Jack's owner, said.
Fire officials arrived and began cooling him off from the end of the culvert. Greco, along with firefighters, animal control, and construction workers from across the street, began to dig and cut through the culvert.
Crews had to slice the culvert at the edge of the driveway without tearing up the concrete.
“Without the ability to use a control pole (nothing to grab onto as he was faced away from us) we ended up having to remove a little bit more of the culvert top, and we crawled inside the culvert and hauled his keister out," animal control wrote in the Facebook post. “You could literally see the relief in his eyes, you could also hear the sighs of relief behind us from the family eagerly awaiting to see their little boy safe and sound.”
"I don't see how he would have gotten in there," Greco said. "He probably smelled something."
Jack was removed on a gurney and taken to a local animal clinic to be checked out.
On Thursday, Jack was resting at home, and Greco said he plans to put up something that will prevent an animal from entering the culvert again.
"I mean, he was stuck. He would have died right there. I would have tore that concrete up if I had to," Greco said. "I mean, these dogs are kind of like my kids, you know? They're family."