A year ago, Joaquín Gallardo went out with his friends in Cártama, Málaga. As they passed by an open field, he heard something strange: “It looked like a little bird”, remembers the young man. It wasn’t a bird, it was Tanka, a dog barely 15 days old who had been abandoned. What Joaquín didn’t know at the time was that Tanka would save his life a year later.
Tanka, the dog who barked for 6 hours straight to save her master from a well
But that afternoon, Tanka was struggling to survive. “She was full of insects, her belly was swollen with worms…”, says Joaquín, who immediately took care of her and took her to the vet. He took her in temporarily while she was being treated and when she was healed he was about to give her to a friend, but it was too late to part with Tanka.
Now, a year later, Tanka has returned the favor. While he was walking near the Rincón de la Victoria cemetery. “I was talking to my mother by WhatsApp“, explains Joaquin, ” at that time, a cat caught the attention of Tanka who went after it, and I followed her”.
- A well of more than 10 meters
Unfortunately, Joaquín accidentally fell into a well. “Suddenly I saw myself in the well”, said the young man. Also, the well was full of water, as it was more than 10 meters deep. Yet there were still more than three meters between Joaquín and the edge and he was unable to get out on his own.
“I couldn’t stand up and the water was freezing,” he remembers, “but I kept my cool. But that was just the start. The mobile had sunk and there was no way to get to the surface. “I was screaming…I’m in a well!” Help ! », but no one wanted to listen, “I thought it was the end”now remembers Joaquín, “but I remembered my uncle Pedro who always told me never to give up”. And he didn’t give up.
Meanwhile, up on the surface, Tanka didn’t leave the shaft for a moment and didn’t stop barking either. She was barking so much that two girls who were at a remote cabin began to suspect something was going on around the corner with so much barking.
So they decided to approach the area and when Joaquín heard their voices, he shouted again: “I am there, where the dog barks”. And that was the end of his nightmare.
Six and a half hours that Joaquín spent inside the well. Fortunately, he only has bruises on his arms and a few wounds on his left leg and knee. Tanka spent six and a half hours barking next to him. “She was barking so much that the officers told me the dog was totally exhausted. Six and a half hours that they will never forget. »
