Craven Arms guide dog Victor in a pickle
It wasn't a typical call-out for the fire service. But when a guide dog got stuck in an attic his owner was left with an impossible conundrum.
"Trying to cart a five stone dog down a ladder isn't straight forward," said Meredith Vivian, a hypnotherapist, life coach and counsellor from Church Stretton.
The 53-year-old, who is blind, had only recently moved into the house with an attic room – but having gone up there to ventilate the property, he didn't expect his black Labrador guide dog Victor to scale the ladder and join him.
He said: "I was in the room opening a window and my dog bounded up, thinking everything was amusing and cheerful. He thought he'd just done something amazing, and he had – he'd just got himself trapped." It only took a moment for the pair to realise they were in a predicament.
"I went down the ladder backwards and tried to encourage him down, but it's too steep, too high to jump and there's not enough room on the landing to land," Mr Vivian said.
"I couldn't carry him down because if I was holding him I'd have no hand free to hold on to anything as I came down."
Mr Vivian called the fire service, who are trained in animal rescue.
Steve Paige, watch manager at Church Stretton fire station, said: "When we got there the poor old dog's tail was wagging, he was dying to get down.
"We sent a couple of men up and we carried him down, but the joy on the gentleman's face was wonderful. He is totally reliant on that dog.
"You know what attic stairs are like, they can be very steep," said Mr Paige, "The gentleman is totally blind and couldn't help or assist the dog in any way.
"It was one of those incidents that make you think 'this is well worth while'."
