Alert nurse saves dog and her puppies from a well in Malappuram

Malappuram: For three days, a female dog and her seven puppies were trapped inside an abandoned well, soaked in slimy water filled with garbage in a housing colony in Perinthalmanna. Puppies occasionally let out a whimper. Sneha Maria Thomas, a nurse residing in the colony as a paying guest, could not ignore it. He walked around the place, trying to locate the source of the sound.

Sneha and her friends used to feed the stray puppies in the colony. When she learned that the mother and cubs had fallen into the well, 16 feet deep, she called her parents in Thiruvananthapuram, who suggested she call the Fire Force. She was referred to Malappuram Trauma Care, an NGO in Malappuram. Jabbar Jubilee, the leader of the trauma care unit, Perinthalmanna, and his team were happy to help.

The well had not been used for some time. Wooden planks were placed on top of a metal sheet covering the well. The dogs had slipped through a gap in the sheet. All the planks were removed. Jabbar struggled for air as he started down the steps. “The well had been abandoned and was full of waste. There was not enough oxygen supply. We worked to ensure the passage of air by swinging the branches of the leaves continuously and then we slowly descended to the dogs,” he said Jabber.

Armed with a net, helmet and harness belt, Jabbar was wary of his mother, who growled at him. He had sensed danger, and the first step was to get her back to safety. Once this was done, Jabbar took all the cubs and brought them back. Jabbar and his team had actively participated in the Wayanad rescue mission. “We released the cubs safely — every life matters, and we’re glad we were able to rescue them,” Jabbar said. The dogs were rescued on Saturday evening.

Sneha, a member of the nursing staff at Moulana Hospital, Perinthalmanna, said she was disturbed by the whimpering of the puppies. “We come home from work and always feed them. At first we thought they were stuck somewhere in the rain. The sound was coming from near the well, but it had been closed for a long time, and we thought the cubs were stuck in a other place. Then we looked into the well with a torch and found the cubs now roaming around our premises,” said Sneha.