When Tim Ryan’s dog, Bruce, went missing in Philadelphia’s Roxborough neighborhood, Ryan searched everywhere.
He walked the streets, called out his pup’s name, and finally turned to Facebook, posting in the community group Roxborough Rants & Raves with the hope that someone might spot Bruce.
The next day, while continuing his search, Ryan checked a construction site near a busy road. Peering into a 15-foot concrete ditch, he braced himself to see his missing pup.
Instead, he found a very different animal in trouble — a full-grown deer with tall antlers, pacing anxiously at the bottom of the pit.
Ryan had no idea how long the deer had been in the hole, but he could tell that the poor guy was stressed.
“He looked like he was gonna hurt himself,” Ryan told NBC10.
Ryan called local authorities, but no one responded. Desperate, he returned to Facebook, sharing the discovery and pleading for help:
“Nobody will rescue this poor deer,” Ryan wrote. “I feel really bad for this deer. He might die in there.”
Neighbors immediately rallied. They reached out to the game commission — and one neighbor also shared some life-changing news. Hours earlier, a woman had posted about a big, friendly dog who’d wandered into her kennel. It was Bruce.
“This large male dog was in my dog’s outdoor kennel this morning,” Ryan’s neighbor, Jen Jones, posted in the group hours earlier. “Please help me find this dog’s owner.”
Ryan didn’t see the update right away — he was too focused on the deer’s fate. Soon, officers arrived at the site with heavy equipment.
They tranquilized the buck to calm him, then used a telehandler to carefully lift him out of the foundation. Safe at last, the deer was transported for recovery before being released back into the wild.
Only after the rescue did Ryan check his phone — and discover that Bruce had been found safe, waiting nearby to be reunited with him.
That evening, man and dog were finally back together, and both rescues ended in relief.
The deer also made a full recovery from his ordeal and was soon released back into the wild.
It’s impossible to know how either of these rescues would’ve gone without the help of Facebook. But as Ryan sees it, his neighbors are to thank for the successful outcome of both.
“Thank you to everyone who helped with the deer rescue and also helping to find my dog,” Ryan later wrote in the Facebook group. “Roxborough Rants & Raves is literally a lifesaver.”
