Scared Dog Wouldn’t Come Out From Under a Shed. Firefighters Found Another Way

Firefighters in Bay Shore, New York, got a call last Wednesday with no fire, no crash and no one hurt. Just a dog named Cody, stuck underneath a backyard shed and too scared to come out.

They tried the obvious fix first. Cody had other ideas. So the crew reached for the kind of equipment usually saved for highway wrecks, and solved the problem in a way nobody in that backyard saw coming.

A Dog Under the Shed

It happened on the afternoon of Wednesday, Oct. 7, at a home on Gardiner Drive in Bay Shore, on Long Island’s South Shore.

The Bay Shore Fire Department responded to a report that the family’s dog, Cody, was trapped beneath a shed in the backyard, according to the department’s account shared with News 12 Long Island and Patch.

Chief of Department John Ippolito Jr. and First Assistant Chief Nick Danza arrived along with members of the department’s Emergency Service Squad. Suffolk County police officers assisted at the scene.

The first step was a quick size-up: where exactly Cody was, and how to reach him without hurting him.

Digging Only Made It Worse

Crews started by digging a trench alongside the shed. The idea was simple: open up a path so Cody could make his way to the front and walk out on his own.

But Cody was frightened. Instead of coming toward the opening, he moved deeper underneath the shed, fire officials said.

Anyone who has had a scared dog knows the feeling. The harder you try to reach them, the farther they back away. And under a shed, farther away means harder to reach, with every minute in a cramped, dark space adding to the stress.

So the chief changed the plan. If Cody wouldn’t come out from under the shed, the shed would have to come up off Cody.

Bringing in the Jaws of Life

Ippolito called for air bags, Hurst hydraulic rescue tools, the equipment most people know as the “Jaws of Life,” and wooden cribbing. News 12 reported that some of that cribbing came from the family’s own backyard.

Firefighters from Rescue 11 deployed the equipment. It is the same kind of gear crews use to free people trapped in crashed cars, and it works on the same principle here.

Lifting a Whole Shed, Inch by Inch

The crew used the hydraulic tools and lifting bags to raise the shed, stacking wooden cribbing underneath as it went up. The cribbing keeps the structure resting on solid blocks, so nothing can slip or settle back down onto the animal the whole operation is meant to save.

Slowly, the gap under the shed grew until there was enough space to reach Cody and bring him out.

The entire rescue took about 20 minutes, according to the department, and was completed without further incident. No one was hurt, and that includes Cody.

Back With His Family

Cody was reunited with his owners, who thanked the firefighters for their help, the department said.

And here’s a detail that says a lot about the people who answered: Cody’s rescue was just one of nine calls the Bay Shore Fire Department handled that Wednesday.

If your own pet ever gets stuck under a shed, deck or porch, take a lesson from Bay Shore. Don’t crawl in after them or start pulling, which can hurt you both. Call your local fire department. They have the training and the tools, and as Cody’s family found out, they’ll go to remarkable lengths for a member of the family with four legs.