Man rescued from well after pulling dog to safety

PAWNEE, Ill. -- A Christian County sheet metal worker named Jeff Puckett is glad he isn't claustrophobic.

Puckett stayed calm while he spent about 45 minutes Sunday night stuck 15 feet down a well beneath the kitchen floor of his home.

Puckett had been doing some repair work on the well Saturday evening when his family's 14-year-old border collie, Bear, fell into it. Puckett put on a harness and went down a rope to save Bear, who is nearly totally blind and deaf. He got down and pulled Bear from the water, but then was unable to climb back up the narrow shaft.

Puckett handed up the 45-pound dog to his children, and then waited patiently for firefighters from Pawnee to arrive and pull him up.