Family Dog Survives Wild Ride

By Dave Franzman, Reporter

Tools

By Becky Ogann

Story Created: May 27, 2008 at 4:57 PM CST

Story Updated: May 28, 2008 at 3:47 PM CST

RURAL DUNKERTON - One farm family north of Dunkerton swears Sunday's storm swept up their pet beagle. And if that's what happened, Skipper survived a ride that might have lasted almost a mile.

The Delagardelle family pet, Skipper, was locked inside the family's attached garage on Sunday. She was probably in her dog house. What happened when the tornado came through? Only Skipper knows for sure.

"We can't ask the dog, if she could tell us, we'd have one heck of a story," said Julie Delagardelle, Skipper's owner.

Julie Delagardelle says Skipper the beagle is afraid of storms, so the family typically locks her inside the garage when they leave home. That's what they did Sunday. Then they got a frantic call from neighbors about a tornado and damage to their home. The arrived to find the attached garage gone and Skipper missing.

"The dog was gone, the dog house was gone, I kind of lost it for a while," said Delagardelle.

Julie and her family started a search for their pet. Almost a mile away, neighbor Lynn Pipho and her family crawled out of the basement after the tornado destroyed their home. Within the rubble, they saw something moving. It was a dog, and she was alive.

The Pipho's uncovered skipper, recognized their neighbor's dog and eventually brought her back home. It's possible the storm blew away the garage and the dog ran away. But the neighbors say they found her buried under rubble and somewhat dazed. And they swear Skipper was picked up by the wind and carried almost a mile along with debris.

"There's no way he walked down there and ended up in this rubble," said Lynn Pipho, neighbor.

The family says Skipper appears in good shape, but was certainly disoriented at first.

"Let him down, runs like he's going to get in the garage stops, looks around like, where's my garage at," said Bill Delagardelle, Skipper's owner.

Believe it or not, here's another bit of evidence. The home where the beagle wound up is directly in line with the path the tornado took as it went through the area. Of course, only one dog knows for sure, and Skipper's not saying.

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