Strangers pitch in to rescue wiener dog stuck in Montana drain pipe

BILLINGS, Mont. — Dachshunds are natural hunters, bred long and skinny to chase fearlessly into badger holes.

So when the long-haired dachshund Mocha, while playing in the front yard of her Billings Heights home Wednesday afternoon, saw a rabbit retreat into a nearby drain pipe she did what she was born to do, she dove in after it.

That turned out to be the easy part. More than 100 feet into the pipe and about four feet underground, she got stuck.

Mocha’s owner, June Brewer, said she’s a well-trained dog.

“But, when she gets on the scent of a wild animal, she kind of loses her mind,” she said.

She first tried to coax Mocha out with food, which usually works. But, not this time.

“We could tell pretty quickly there was no way to get her out but to dig,” she said.

And, here’s where it pays to know somebody who knows somebody.

A family member knew a guy from Benjamin Franklin Plumbing in Billings who had a drain snake with a camera on it. He rushed right over. Someone else knew someone who worked for the city’s water department who also rushed to the scene with a camera snake. With cameras searching from both ends of the drain pipe, they quickly spotted Mocha who was wet and muddy and shaking.

Once they located Mocha’s underground location — in the middle of a neighbor's neatly landscaped yard — someone mentioned they knew someone from Grizzly Peak Excavation who rushed over with a backhoe.

They dug down to the plastic pipe and cut through it and out popped Mocha, a little dazed, and rabbitless, but safe at last.

From the time Mocha disappeared to the time she saw daylight again was about five hours.

“Those workers were so compassionate with her, a dog they didn’t even know,” said Brewer. “Mocha was so glad to be out, she was just kissing everybody she could and was really wagging her tail.”

The neighborhood has had a rough few years. Many of the residents standing around to share in Mocha’s rescue are older folks who had been forced into isolation during the pandemic.

“It had been awhile since we’d all seen each other,” Brewer said. “Mocha brought us all together again.”