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Dylan was released from an animal hospital on July 26, with this being the first picture of the dog since he was released.
DOG
(Continued from Page 1) neighborhood, when he found the dog “down in that hole,” as he put it in a Facebook live video, or what he revealed to be a drainpipe contained in a storm drain system in the unit block of Quail Ridge Court. “He was just looking at me like, ‘What do you want from me?’” recounted Orwan of when he removed the metal grate and crawled down as far as he could go into the storm drain, coming in contact with the dog through the hole of the drainpipe. “It looks like Dylan is stuck in this pipe.” The pipe, later determined by Medford Fire and EMS Department to be in the township right-of-way, was estimated by Orwan, in a later interview with this newspaper, to be at least “half a football field or so” in length, running underneath Quail Ridge Court. A laser range finder that he used put the estimated pipe’s length at 54.2 yards, Orwan told this newspaper. Orwan said that upon discovering Dylan, he determined the dog was “still alive, but barely.” It was almost a week prior to that discovery, according to Orwan, that Dylan had “gotten loose from his foster parents” in the Medford neighborhood. Shellinda Fisher-Hardie, the founder and president of Jericho’s Wish Animal Rescue, one of Southern NJ Humane Tracking and Trapping Recovery Group’s rescue partners, contacted the group at the time for assistance, and they suggested hanging
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flyers “to get sightings,” as well as to “put out humane traps, etc.” But it was to no real avail, with only one possible sighting of the dog that was “not substantiated.” Medford Fire and EMS, Orwan noted, were also called out to the area and had searched the storm drain system, along with Medford Township Neighborhood Services, using a special camera, but there was no sign of Dylan. This past Saturday, however, Orwan said he received a phone call from Fisher-Hardie, reporting that she “possibly heard barking from the rain system.” Orwan maintained that in response, he agreed to “come up, take a look and find out.” He asked nearby neighbors for their assistance in removing the storm drain’s metal grate upon arrival. “I didn’t hear anything,” he said of the initial moments of his search. “And nobody heard anything since the morning.” Utilizing his “big, powerful Milwaukee spotlight,” Orwan recounted that he shined it in the drainpipe, and “saw what looked like either a cushion or brown paper bag,” but that he “couldn’t quite make it out” as to what he was seeing. That is when he got out his binoculars, “crawled in the storm drain,” and “sure enough, it was Dylan.” “Originally, he was not moving, or doing anything,” said Orwan, who initially thought the dog might have passed away. “But then I got lucky when I repositioned the light, and saw it reflect back off his retinas, and thought to myself he must have moved his
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eyes for it to do that.” When he started calling the dog’s name, according to Orwan, “he started crying, howling and barking.” “So, I knew he was alive at that point,” Orwan said. “So, I decided to call Medford Fire and EMS.” According to a Facebook posting from Orwan, when Medford Township officials arrived on scene, he made his intentions very clear: “‘I will not leave that dog down in that pipe to die alone … and I’ll do whatever it takes to get it (the rescue) done.” What followed next is what Orwan later described as a “total show of humanity.” For reportedly close to “nine or 10 hours,” from this past Saturday evening into Sunday morning, members of Medford Fire and EMS, along with staff from the Neighborhood Services, in addition to staffers of the Medford Township Police Department, Atlantic City Electric, Jericho’s Wish Animal Rescue, and Southern NJ Humane Tracking and Trapping Recovery Group, as well as the residents of Quail Ridge Court, worked to rescue Dylan from the storm drainpipe. Among those seen on local television helping to lift Dylan out of the storm drain upon the successful rescue was Medford Fire and EMS Chief Robert Dovi. “The decision to dig above the pipe was made with the plan to breach the pipe and rescue the animal,” said Dovi to this newspaper of how the rescue unfolded. “During the digging operations, we located the underground service for Atlantic Electric. We stopped digging and requested they respond. Atlantic Electric responded and worked with us to secure the service so digging operations could resume. During the time this was occurring, members of the dog rescue, along with members of Medford Fire & EMS, continued to monitor the dog in the pipe. “Once the pipe was reached, a small hole was made in the pipe to locate the dog. When the hole was made, the dog began to move toward the rescue staff at the end of the pipe. Through a coordinated effort by everyone on scene, the dog was removed from the pipe.” Orwan noted in the interview with this newspaper that during the entire ordeal, a youngster that was part of the foster dog family, “kept talking to the dog, to encourage him to move,” and that “every time he would hear her voice, he would get up and move about five feet towards the rescuers, before collapsing down.” Ultimately, one of the Atlantic City Electric workers, Orwan said, took a “big telescopic pole used to reach wires,” that extends some 65 feet,” and helped the rescuers hook it to the dog’s collar and “pulled him very slowly” to safety over a period of time. For the last 35 feet or so of the rescue, according to Orwan, Dylan had
to be carefully dragged to safety as he had “no effort” left in him. According to Dovi, Medford Fire and EMS provided “initial treatment of the dog’s injuries.” Dylan, he said, was then placed in a Medford Police vehicle and transported to Mount Laurel Animal Hospital for treatment. “At this time, a special thanks has to go out to Medford Fire and EMS for going way above and beyond, and to the Medford Police for helping and being there every step of the way,” declared Orwan in a later statement. “Even after Dylan was extracted from the pipe, it was the Medford Police who started him on oxygen and then turned on their lights and sirens and rushed him to the Mount Laurel Animal Hospital.” The Mount Laurel Animal Hospital reported in a July 25 Facebook posting that Dylan is “recovering at our hospital and is doing well.” Fisher-Hardie, in a July 26 interview with this newspaper, reported that Dylan had been released earlier in the day from the hospital and is expected to make a full recovery. During the previous day, Fisher-Hardie announced that Dylan would be undergoing further evaluation by an orthopedic doctor as a precaution “because he’s still stiff” when walking. His blood work and X-rays, “looked good,” she said. But Dylan, upon being rescued, was said by both Orwan and Fisher-Hardie to be in “pretty bad shape with multiple injuries,” sustaining burns on both his paws and elbows (believed to be related to the recent heatwave, possibly from hot asphalt or the pipe itself turning hot), in addition to several abrasions, including a deep laceration on his elbow. The dog also was dehydrated, registered a 104-degree fever, showed possible signs of heat stroke, and was “covered in ticks and fleas,” both Orwan and Fisher-Hardie said. Dylan, Fisher-Hardie noted, tested positive for the bacterium Anaplasmosis, which is spread by ticks (primarily from the Blacklegged Tick and the Western Blacklegged Tick). All of the abrasions were cleaned, with the deep one requiring what was described by Jericho’s Wish Animal Rescue on Facebook as “a little sedation.” Upon hospitalization, it was reported that Dylan “received pain meds to help him and calm down his labored breathing,” and also “had an IV.” “His condition right now is improving,” Orwan told this newspaper. “They thought they were going to have to do surgery on that deep laceration, but they got around that by patching him up pretty good. He is also on an antibiotic.” Fisher-Hardie told th is newspap er that Dylan has also been placed on antiinflammatory medication, as well as another because he wasn’t eating for a time at the See DOG/ Page 6
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