Tearful reunion as dog trapped underground is rescued

London native Alan Whitton cut a relieved figure on November 22 when he was reunited with his treasured Jack Russell, after the dog was rescued from a fox hole, two days after going missing in Knighton Wood, Essex. Whitton’s dog, named Mitzi, went missing after being chased by a larger dog while on a walk. A woman who saw an appeal regarding Mitzi’s whereabouts on social media contacted Whitton telling him that her dog had spent a long time sniffing at a fox hole in the area. “She had called Mitzi’s name and heard the faintest whimper — so faint it could have been a bird she said,” Whitton’s wife, Jane, told Storyful. The woman showed Whitton the area where she heard the dog’s cry, and he began digging with his bare hands, before additional help came in the form of a number of local volunteers with spades. Mitzi can be seen being pulled from the hole and being embraced by Whitton, in the video uploaded to his Facebook page on November 22 with the words “ever seen a grown man cry?” A lead was fitted to the dog shortly after being removed from the hole and one of the volunteers can be heard telling Whitton “do not let her go.” His wife told Storyful that Mitzi was “unscathed but for seven ticks.” Credit: Jane Whitton via Storyful