An inquisitive dog got herself stuck inside an old tire in Massachusetts — forcing fire officials to saw away a hunk of metal in order to set the trapped pooch free.
The curious canine, Bella, meandered into a neighbor’s yard Saturday in Falmouth and somehow got her head stuck in the metal rim of a rusty tire, Falmouth Animal Control and fire-rescue officials said.
Initial attempts to free Bella were unsuccessful, so animal control officers reached out to the Falmouth Fire Rescue Department for help once they determined the tire needed to be sawed away to get her out.
Responding firefighters then draped a wet blanket around Bella and used a “pneumatic abrasive wheel” to hack away a portion of the metal rim that kept her from running off.
“The rim was cut from lug nut hole to lug nut hole,” Falmouth Fire Rescue officials said on Facebook, adding that Bella was also cooled down initially to prevent her from being injured.
Three lug nut holes were cut in all, allowing rescuers to guide a wet and fatigued Bella to back out of the rim without being hurt, fire officials said.
“Thank you to the Falmouth Fire/Rescue Team for their hard work and determination!” Falmouth Animal Control wrote in a separate Facebook post.
Bella was later reunited with her owner, authorities said.
Officials did not specify Bella’s breed, but several people on Facebook said she appeared to be a Norwegian elkhound.
“She won’t do that again,” one woman quipped.
“Dogs can do the silliest things,” another wrote. “Can’t understand why a dog would do this.”
