The colonel would be proud of his chicken and the SPCA

On May 14, SPCA Inspector Mpho Mokoena received a call saying that the person had seen a large black dog in a storm water drain along the N4 Highway. Mpho and Ms Natalie Colledge (SPCA Manager) responded to the call.

“We walked up and down the highway searching for this dog but couldn’t find her or the storm water drain,” said Natalie. After hours of searching they gave up and headed home.

Two days later Natalie received a call explaining the same situation again – a large black dog in a storm water drain on the N4, this time just before the OR Tambo off ramp.

“Nicolous Mahlangu, a trainee inspector and I headed out, we managed to find the dog, she was a black Sharpei,” said Natalie.
Now came the struggle of getting the dog out of the drain, at first they tried dog pellets, the Sharpei came forward but without a moment’s noticed ran back into the drain as soon as Natalie and Nic tried to catch her.

“The traffic was very bad and the noise echoing in the drain was unbelievably loud, I could see she was very hungry and it showed as she was a bit aggressive towards us but at the same time scared,” added Natalie.

The struggle continued as they kept trying to catch the Sharpei, she would motion forward and retreat into the storm drain which runs under the highway.

“We were starting to feel despondent and we were very worried about the dog. We didn’t want to leave her in the drain for another night and started going through our options, that’s when the idea came of getting some KFC in the hopes that the smell would draw her out,” laughed Natalie.

They got some KFC and to their surprise it worked, the dog slowly peered out of the storm drain realising there was some warm food waiting, Nic had it in his hands and motioned, drawing the Sharpei out from the storm drain, Natalie waited in anticipation.

The dog had come out far enough when Natalie leaped into the drain, blocking the pooch off and began pulling her out from the storm drain.
“She was shaking out of both fear and the cold, but we managed to get her out and wrap her in a blanket, carrying her back to the vehicle, we felt a sense of accomplishment knowing we made a good rescue,” said Natalie.

The Sharpei is now safe and sound at the Witbank SPCA and has recovered well thanks to the efforts of everyone involved, she has even begun showing her friendliness to the staff at the SPCA and Natalie hopes that her owners will come and retrieve her.

“We just want to say a big thank you to Dr Nolan Landman for coming out so late that night to examine the dog for us. Also thank you to Hardus Kotze for lending us torches and Leonet Vermaak for bringing the KFC bribe out to the highway for us,” ended Natalie.