FOR Sasha the Red Setter-spaniel cross life has been a case of ruff and tumble.
But her owner can’t believe how lucky the dog is after surviving a recent 150 feet plunge down a cliff.
Sasha was frolicking with border collie Moby when the playful pair misjudged their surroundings and both plummeted over the edge at Southerndown, in South Wales.
Lyndsey Rudd, of Gaydon Close, in Carterton, who was with her husband Matt visiting the beauty spot, fully expected Sasha and Moby, who belonged to friend Dannii Thomas, not to have survived the fall.
She said: “I was visiting my parents for the weekend and we were out walking the dogs. We were doing a trail walk and there were lots of other people and dogs up there.
“Sasha and Moby were running around, playing with each other and enjoying themselves. They ran ahead as we were walking along and we called them back.
“All of a sudden my husband ran to the edge and people were screaming, saying they had fallen off.
“I can still hear the screams to this day.”
The couple shouted down the cliff face to the rocky shore below, where fellow walkers including an RAF dog handler had gone over to the pets, while Mr Rudd scrambled his way down an incline.
Mrs Rudd said: “Moby just got up and limped off towards the sea and sat in the water, but Sasha wasn’t moving.
“Finally, she came around, but she was very disoriented and could not walk.”
After an hour-long trip to the nearest 24-hour vet in Cardiff, Sasha was found to have fractured five ribs and Moby had fractured his jaw and had broken a vertebra.
Six-year-old Sasha needed a five-night stay, but Moby was discharged the next day.
Four weeks on from the drama on March 5, Sasha is “99 per cent back to herself” and has even been allowed off her lead on walks.
Mrs Rudd reflected: “I cannot believe how lucky they were. My husband was sure he would go down there to see two dead dogs.
“If it was a child, they would not have survived.”
She added: “My husband’s in the military and we used to be based in Cyprus, which is where we got Sasha, who was a rescue dog.
“She had been thrown out of a car in Nicosia."
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