May 31--YORK, Pa -- It was May 23 when Penny went missing.
She had been out in the yard that evening with Angel, Carla Becker's boxer, when it began to rain. Becker called the dogs in, and Angel returned.
Penny, a 6-year-old miniature pinscher, did not.
Becker and her boyfriend, Pat Kinsley, searched for Penny, calling her name. They got the four-wheelers out and toured the grounds -- Becker's house is part of South Branch Farms in the 300 block of Reynolds Mill Road in York Township.
Nothing.
Penny was gone.
Becker was worried. There are foxes in the area, and they heard word that there even might be coyotes. Penny was the runt of her litter and is small even for a miniature pinscher, weighing about seven pounds, the size of a Chihuahua. Becker had no idea what could have happened to Penny.
The rain fell harder, and they called off the search after a little more than an hour.
The next morning, they went back out. Still, no sign of Penny.
Each ensuing day, Becker and Kinsley would search, looking for signs of Penny. Becker would walk around the farm, calling her name, to no avail.
Then, Tuesday evening, she and Kinsley were sitting on the porch, talking, when they heard a strange noise that seemed to be coming from the basement. It sounded like a bird, Becker recalled.
They grabbed a flashlight and looked around the basement but couldn't find anything. As they walked out, through the door to the back of the house, they heard the noise again.
Becker's 17-year-old son, Mitchell Schue, said, "That's Penny."
It was.
And the sound was coming from the drain in the landing outside the basement door.
Becker knelt and called down the drain.
Penny whimpered.
The drain fed a PVC pipe that carried water away from the house, ending in a cistern out in the yard. Becker and Kinsley went to the end of the pipe and saw that the cap covering the pizza-pan-sized opening of the cistern, in some high grass and weeds at the edge of the property, was missing. Penny must've fallen in.
And then, she crawled up the 4-inch-diameter pipe.
They called the Goodwill Fire Company in Jacobus, and a firefighter responded to check it out. He called for backup. They, in turn, called out the township water and sewer department, which snaked a camera into the drain.
There, about 281/2 feet away from the drain -- and about 60 to 75 yards away from the cistern -- was Penny.
Kinsley called his brother, Chris, and a short time later, Chris' son, Andrew, showed up with a backhoe.
And they dug up Penny, luring her out with a dog treat.
She seemed OK, Becker said. Still, they took her to the vet, which checked her out and said other than being a bit dehydrated, she was OK. Fortunately, Becker said, Penny was a bit overweight and was able to survive five days without food. She did get some water from the drain pipe.
"She was starving," Becker said. "Other than that, she was great."
Becker is glad to have her "little baby" home.
"For five days, I thought she was dead," she said. "Now she's back."
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Copyright 2013 - York Daily Record, Pa.
