View video on a PC at RealFastNews.com of 12 year old Erick Vicente who lives in the 1300 block of Cave Spring Rd whose parents called Rome firefighters to rescue his dog "Buddy" recently. Rome firefighters, family and neighbors worked tirelessly in the summer heat for several hours trying to free the dog that had been in the drainage pipe in front of the boy's house without food or water for three days.

Firefighters arrived to find that the dog had made its way into the center of the 30-40 ft long by 1.5 ft wide pipe that was partially filled with mounds of dirt. This made it even more difficult for the dog to move and for rescuers to see him. Firefighters eventually ended up digging three different holes to access the dog. They tried using food & another dog to lure him out but he wasn't moving, mostly because of the dirt mounds in the pipe. As a last resort to digging through, firefighters shot a light stream of water from a hole dug in the pipe toward the rear of the dog to help wash out the dirt mounds so he could pass through. The main concern was the water backing up and possibly drowning the dog if he panicked.

Eventually, after the third hole was dug through the pipe and with a little prodding with a pipe snake, Buddy decided to exit only to run right into another adjacent pipe which tunneled under Cave Spring Rd! Luckily though, that pipe was much larger and he was quickly retrieved on the other side of the road and given much needed food, water and big hug.