Dog rescued after riding out North Carolina floods for nearly a week on living-room couch after Florence
The Humane Society of Missouri is sharing a heartwarming video of the rescue of a little Maltese who spent nearly a week floating on a couch alone in her family's dark home after Hurricane Florence.
On Sept. 25, the organization said its Disaster Response team had gotten word from a desperate homeowner that her little white dog by the name of Soshe was stranded in her flooded house in Pender County, North Carolina.
The team tried to find the home twice but floodwaters, which had risen to the tops of homes, made it extremely difficult for staff to locate an address.
On the team's third try to locate the dog on Sept. 21, its boat broke down, forcing staff to paddle to the neighborhood. Luckily, though, the waters had lowered enough that they could find the house.
Video released on the Humane Society of Missouri's YouTube page showed team members Chad Gard and Jessica Crampton making their way through neck-high waters to reach a door on the house.
The two were able to kick down the door to the house and get inside, where they found Soshe. The dog was wet and shivering but appeared OK. Video showed Soshe being hugged and cuddled by a team member and then eating voraciously in a carrier.
Hours later, a woman in the video said that she owned a farm and that the dog's owner was a customer of the farm.
"She was distraught that she couldn't get to her house and knew that Soshe was inside," the woman said in the video. "She's trapped in Wilmington right now with no way to get here so she asked if I would come pick her up."
The owner had evacuated about a week ago, according to ABC News affiliate WHAS-TV. The woman, hugging the dog, said the owner was in tears when they'd spoken earlier.
"It's amazing she's alive," the woman said of Soshe.
The organization, which sent 10 volunteers to the state to help after Florence, said it had rescued dozens of animals during Florence.
On Wednesday, it told ABC News that Soshe had been reunited with her owner.
