If Brillo the wire-haired dachshund had been a cat, he would have used up his nine lives a long time ago.

The 12-year-old dog, who disappeared from his home in Smallhythe Road, Tenterden, for a week, had to be dug out of a badger sett by owner Andrew Hynard and needed stitches after a spat with a badger.

Brillo was stuck underground for six days without food or water and had to be rescued by a specialist firefighting team.

“At his age he should know better,” said Mr Hynard, a surveyor. “He is an absolute shocker.

“We are so grateful to the fire service for coming to his rescue.

“They were amazing and said they were glad to have a bit of practice at digging things out of the ground.”

Brillo went missing when Mr Hynard’s wife, Debbie, was loading the car to join her husband in London for a few days.

“He just disappeared from the garden,” said Mr Hynard. “Debbie looked for him and called him for over an hour but then had to leave.

“We had friends and family searching for him all last week, to no avail. He had disappeared before but always came back.”

Then, days later, the Hynards took their other dog, chocolate Labrador Mocha, into the woods behind their garden.

Mocha became excited near a bank of badger setts and they could hear Brillo barking from deep underground.

“When this has happened before, I have been able to dig him out. But after an hour, I realised there was no way I could get to him,” said Mr Hynard.

He called Kent Fire and Rescue Service which sent a four-person crew from its urban search and rescue team.

“They had all the kit including a camera which they put down the tunnels and found Brillo who was stuck some 8ft below the surface and 10ft from where I had been digging,” said Mr Hynard.

“After two or three hours of digging, they pulled him out, but not before he had given them a couple of nips – the ungrateful so-and-so.

“He was pretty thin having had no food or water for six days, but is now fine, curling up in front of the Aga and acting as if nothing has happened.

“He is incredibly lucky and we are so grateful to the fire service.”