A YOUNG dog was rescued by firefighters after being trapped on the ledge of a chalk quarry for several days.

Rizla, a 20-month old Staffordshire bull terrier bitch, disappeared from her home in Vicarage Road, Halling, near Rochester, on Sunday, November 6.

But last weekend, after surviving for days without food or water, she was spotted, cold and hungry on the ledge in the nearby quarry, and the dramatic rescue operation began.

Rizla’s ordeal started when owners Angela and Rob Schoeffer arrived home and their pet was nowhere to be seen. Frantic with worry, they launched a search party to find her.

The couple, with help from their neighbours, spent hours looking for their pet, but no-one in the village had spotted her.

Speaking to the Medway Messenger, Angela said: “We’d searched every­where and we just couldn’t understand what had happened to her. She had just disappeared.

“Our neighbours helped us make some posters and we put them up around the village.”

As the days passed, Angela and her husband continued to search fields, alleyways, farmland and undergrowth, but hope was fading of ever finding out where Rizla had gone.

Angela added: “The days went past and no-one had seen her, but then a man who lived down the road knocked on our door and told us he’d not seen a dog, but could hear one howling from the quarry behind our house.”

After a quick search of the chalk cliffs Rizla was spotted high up on a ledge looking, tired, hungry and cold.

Firefighters from Larkfield helped locate her and a specialised line rescue crew was called in from Deal, to help winch her to safety.

“I couldn’t believe it, there she was on the ledge,” said Angela. “She’s really skinny and looked a bit sorry for herself, but she’s unharmed.

“She may be expecting puppies, and we are so pleased and thankful to the Fire and Rescue Service and everyone who helped find her.

“We’re so grateful to have her home again, and I went out and got her some chicken as a treat for her homecoming.”