Miracle survivor of Italy quake: A golden retriever

ROME — A golden retriever called Romeo has been pulled from the rubble of Italy’s earthquake, more than nine days after he was given up for dead after the collapse of his owners’ house.

Touching footage filmed by the firemen who saved him shows the family pet being lifted out from under a pile of masonry being held up by a steel beam.

Appearing completely relaxed, Romeo slurps up his first drops of water in more than 230 hours from a bottle held by one of the firemen.

As it becomes clear he is unscathed, the fireman holding him puts him down and Romeo tiptoes down the pile of rubble to be reunited with tearful owners who had given up hope of finding him alive.

“He’s in great shape,” says one of the firemen as others whoop in delight while Romeo trots around what remains of his yard, sniffing out familiar smells with trademark Retriever insouciance.

His owners were sleeping on the second floor of the house in the tiny village of San Lorenzo a Flaviano when the earthquake struck before dawn on August 24.

They managed to get out, but Romeo, who was sleeping on the first floor, was trapped inside. After searching for him for hours, they were eventually evacuated from the devastated village for their own safety.

All hope of finding Romeo alive appeared to have disappeared until Friday evening, when the couple returned to their home in the company of a group of firemen assigned to help them recover key belongings from the rubble.

Almost as soon as they came into the tiny medieval village, Romeo heard their voices and began barking.

“We immediately began moving masonry from where the barking was coming from and incredibly we got to him and he was in pretty good condition,” one of the firemen told the ANSA news agency.

“Luckily some beams had fallen in a way that they were holding up the weight of everything above them leaving Romeo with a little niche that he was able to survive in. AFP