Bella's 230km high-speed ordeal
2007-04-25 23:01
Pretoria - A Jack Russell has survived a nightmare 230km trip at a speed of 120km/h after being trapped in the engine compartment of a 4x4 bakkie.
Except for being very thirsty, frightened and covered in grease Bella was unharmed. She even caught a rat an hour after being released to show she had fully recovered from her trauma.
Riekie Nel of White River in Mpumalanga said Bella travelled from Tzaneen to Sabie in the compartment, lying between the motor and a cover-plate below it.
"Only her tail and her tongue were hanging over the sides".
Bella's ordeal took place on Sunday when Willie Nel and his sons, Ewald, 15, Pierre, 14, and Liam, 10, were heading for home after visiting their grandmother, Anneline Nel, on her farm at Tzaneen.
Heard whining noise
After about two hours on the road back to White River, near Three Rondawels at Blyde Poort, they twice heard something that sounded like a dog whining.
This was after they had stopped at Strydom Tunnel to get petrol.
They ignored the "whining" sound when they couldn't find out where it was coming from. They drove through Graskop and stopped in Sabie to buy food at the Wimpy Bar.
Rikeie said: "Just before they left, the manager of the Wimpy stopped my husband and told him there was a dog under the bakkie.
"My husband's stomach lurched, because he didn't know what to expect."
Riekie said her husband looked under the bakkie, and saw a tail and a tongue hanging out. He held his hand near the tongue and the dog licked it.
While her husband was unscrewing the cover-plate he was nauseous with shock because he had read just a week previously about cooking food on the motor while driving.
"On closer inspection they discovered it was Bella, one of my mother-in-law's many Jack Russells."
Formidable hunter
The Nels think Bella was chasing a rat that had crawled in behind the cover-plate. She may have been unable to get out again or perhaps the bakkie drove off at that moment.
"She's a formidable hunter and on Tuesday my husband had to search all over town for Bella. We're taking her back to Tzaneen on Thursday."
This time, Bella will ride inside the bakkie.