August 30, 2024 — 11:09 local time

A storm had turned the vineyard into a flood zone. Between the rows of grapevines, rainwater had carved deep erosion channels into the soaked soil, and muddy water was surging through them under a dark, heavy sky. It was there, wedged into the side of a narrow muddy trench, that a rescuer’s chest-mounted bodycam found a small brown-and-white puppy — soaked through, its paws pressed into the collapsing earth, trying to hold itself up as the current rushed past beside it.

The footage, timestamped 2024-08-30 11:09:26, opens looking down the flooded vine row. The puppy is trapped low in the trench wall, its white chest and speckled muzzle streaked with mud, its long ears plastered flat by the rain. Its eyes stay fixed on the camera as two gloved hands enter the frame, moving slowly.

Wearing a bright orange waterproof rescue suit, black gloves and a harness hung with ropes and carabiners, the rescuer kneels carefully at the trench edge, bracing against ground that is visibly crumbling. Rather than grabbing, he works both hands in beneath the puppy’s body, supporting it fully while mud sticks to its fur and brown water keeps rushing through the channel inches away.

Midway through the 15-second recording, the puppy is lifted clear of the trench. Held low and close, it looks directly into the lens — wet, trembling and exhausted, but no longer fighting to keep its footing in the mud.

In the closing seconds, the rescuer keeps the puppy held securely low in both hands, one gloved hand gently steadying its head, with the flooded vineyard rows and storm clouds still visible behind them. The puppy settles against his hands, finally out of the trench and clear of the water.

Animal welfare workers note that puppies are especially vulnerable in flash flooding around farmland: drainage channels and erosion ditches fill and accelerate quickly, their banks collapse without warning, and a small, cold, exhausted animal can be swept away in seconds. Anyone who finds a trapped animal in a flood channel is advised not to enter fast-moving water, to approach from stable ground, to support the animal’s whole body when lifting, and to call local rescue services when the ground is unstable.

No music plays over the bodycam audio — only rushing muddy water, falling rain, distant thunder, mud shifting under weight and the puppy’s faint cries. It is a small rescue in the middle of a storm: two steady hands, one muddy puppy, and a careful lift out of a trench that was falling in around it.