Perla, a dog who survived being stuck in a drainage ditch after running away on the Fourth of July, is back with her owner after good Samaritans in Riverside County saw a post on social media and decided to help.
Kody Marquez is a lifetime animal lover, so when she saw photos of a dog wedged inside a steel pipe in a drainage channel, she knew her family had to do something.
"I've done it since I was little," she said. "I would save anything that I would see."
"i said i don't think we can just let this go."
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The drainage pipe was at the end if a steep embankment.
"It was 100 degrees that day and concrete was about 138."
But Kody's husband, Brian, was up to the task.
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"He just started to gently toss her food."
It took more than an hour.
"Finally, when he poured out a bottle of water into the bowl, she came right for it."
Once a leash was over her head, the dog walked right out.
"She was just as excited as we were," Brian said. "She hopped right in the car.
"We were completely ecstatic. We all just started crying."
But they still needed to find the owner.
They took her to Station 66 in Beaumont.
As part of a pilot program, Riverside County Animal Services sent 20 microchip scanners to County fire stations. Perla had a chip and they found the owner.
"As you can imagine, we have finite number of animal control officers and so when you have people who love animals assisting us by collecting an animal and checking to see if it has a chip, this is great," said John Welsh, of animal services.
