Dog pulled from Virginia City mine shaft

VIRGINIA CITY - Saturday wasn't the best birthday Gunner has ever had, but it looks like he will at least survive it.

Volunteer Storey County rescue workers pulled the pooch Gunner, a boxer mix, from deep down a mine shaft east of Virginia City. The dog spent more than three hours 35 to 40 feet down the mine and suffered an open fracture of a hip in the fall.

A spokesman said the Storey County Jeep Posse and one member of the Storey County Volunteer Fire Department mounted the rescue operation after receiving a report of the accident about 10:30 a.m.

The shaft is about a half-mile up Seven Mile Canyon, which itself is about 2 1/2 miles east of Virginia City north of Six Mile Canyon.

"The owners had just moved onto the hill, were still moving in, and this was the first time they'd taken their dogs for a walk in the area," the spokesman said. "They said this was Gunner's birthday."

The rescue workers set up a rope system to lower personnel into the vertical shaft, which was dry where Gunner landed.

"Once we got him up, the owners took him right to the veterinarian's office. We were too busy to get their names," the spokesman said.

The Virginia City area is riddled with mine shafts dating back as far as 140 years, the legacy of the Comstock Lode, and many shafts are neither sealed nor marked.

Volunteer rescue workers practice mine rescues in actual shafts so they are prepared for events like Saturday's, the spokesman said.