The San Bernardino Fire Department received a strange call from a woman, who said her German Shepherd has been stuck in the backyard’s tunnel at their Fontana, California home early February of this year.
As the firefighters approached the scene, they came to realize the dog was stuck, because the family’s 80-pound tortoise was also inside the tunnel.
According to the Animal Channel report, the Arballos family, owner of both tortoise and dog, tried to free their German Shepherd, but the tortoise wouldn’t budge. One of the family members, Simon Arballo, dove into the tunnel to remove the tortoise, but he was too heavy to move.
Both dog and tortoise have been wedged in about six feet into the tunnel and the firefighters quickly removed the dirt to provide space for the animals so they could move. To move the tortoise, the firefighters gave him lettuce and carrots to coax him out.
Once the turtle was out, they were finally able to put out the dog too.
“We just got the lettuce, you know, and some little carrots, a little maneuver and she’s out,” said Tracy Arballo to NBC Los Angeles. “Just enough for Taylor to come out and happy ending.”
Taylor, the German Shepherd, appeared to have explored the tunnel, which Godzilla the tortoise dug underneath the cinderblock wall that separated the backyard from their neighbor.
“It appears that the dog had brought a blanket into the tunnel resulting in the dog, blanket and tortoise becoming wedged and entangled,” Captain Jeremy Kern posted on Facebook.
After 10 minutes, both animals were free and are now completely fine.
