‘Christmas miracle’: Penticton, B.C. dog rescued after being trapped under boulder

A ‘Christmas miracle’ — that’s what one Penticton, B.C., family calls the story of how they were reunited with their dog.

He was trapped outside overnight during freezing temperatures, unable to even move.

Krista Berrigan is overjoyed to be reunited with her dog Firefox after a scare when he went missing while playing outside.

“We went over to the neighbour’s house, then the other neighbour’s house and thought, well, where is he? He’s not anywhere around, it’s crazy,” said Berrigan.

Berrigan and her partner were calling out to their four-legged friend, looking for him throughout their neighbourhood before eventually turning to social media.

“The whole city came together and really helped us and there were people out looking for a dog up and down this road,” she said.

“We looked as far as Naramata because there were all kinds of signs.”

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The family gave up the search for the night and returned the following day, this time with Berrigan bringing her other dog Chrome along. When she started to play near a certain spot, Berrigan took a closer look and spotted some orange fur.

That’s when she noticed he was wedged underneath a big rock.

The family tried moving and lifting the boulder to get Firefox out, but there wasn’t enough room for the dog to escape. That’s when the family called in the authorities.

“Firefighters come in because we needed weight for people to actually get the rock and the boulder out,” Berrigan said.

“So that he would come out successfully because we thought the boulder would fall back in on top of him.”

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Firefox suddenly scooted out from under the rubble and was reunited with his family and best buddy Chrome. Berrigan says the find makes this holiday season even more special.

“It is my Christmas miracle, without getting too emotional. I don’t think anybody needs to go through what we went through, but I cannot thank anybody (enough), all the community for what they did here.”

Although it’s believed Firefox was trapped under the rock for over 16 hours, he came out without a scratch.