Triumph over tragedy in Wayne County Monday afternoon. After days of digging, a family found their buried dog alive.

Larry Thompson first noticed his 14 year old dalmatian was missing on Thursday night. Over the weekend, he heard noises and realized the dog, Alex, had fallen in a storm drain.

Family, friends and a back hoe, that dug another hole 30 feet deep helped in a rescue fueled by hope.

Larry Thompson says, "A lot of people wouldn't give it a time of day or even attempt to get the animal out. I wanted to get him out alive or dead, either one. The effort was worth it both ways."

After four days underground, Alex was rushed to a vet in Huntington to be checked out.

The Thompson family is grateful for all the messages of support, received from around the region, on Alex's rescue.

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SUNDAY NIGHT UPDATE:
Sunday afternoon the search was called off for a Dalmatian trapped 20 feet underground in a storm drain in Wayne County. Sunday evening family members decided to keep digging. They say they have spent Sunday evening talking to Alex and praying for him.

Earlier Sunday, Larry Thompson tried to rescue his Dalmatian named Alex. He says the dog climbed down into a storm drain to cool off. The dog got stuck and efforts to rescue him became dangerous. At one point Larry crawled down into the storm drain to try to help free his dog but a wall of dirt started falling in on him. Larry climbed out and had to leave his family pet behind.

A friend with a backhoe helped dig Sunday afternoon. The family has called for an excavation crew to come in Monday morning and resume the search for Alex.

As of 10 Sunday night the family says they can still hear Alex but have not been able to do any more digging. Rescue efforts will continue Monday morning.

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SUNDAY AFTERNOON STORY (original)
Sunday afternoon emergency crews in Genoa, Wayne County got an unusual call for help. Larry Thompson told first responders that his dog, Alex was trapped 15 feet underground in an old storm drain. He had been missing since Friday. Family members started hearing sounds of a dog whimpering coming from the storm drain Sunday morning. The drain pipe is in their driveway and is more than 30 years old.

As of 2:30 Sunday afternoon, the dog is still stuck. Family members say Larry has crawled down in the hole to comfort his dog and try to help with the rescue. SWAZI has a crew on the scene and will update this story as details come in.

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