A Great Dane survived for almost 24 hours trapped down a 25ft deep crevice in woods near Grenofen last week before being rescued by fire crews from Yelverton and Camel's Head.

Chris Roberts, of Sampford Spiney, had been walking 14-and-a-half stone Tuvak in the woods by the River Walkham on Wednesday afternoon when the three-year-old dog went missing.

'He just didn't come back,' said Ms Roberts. 'We searched for him all night. I knew the mine was up there and we'd looked everywhere else.'

She finally found the dog at around lunchtime on Thursday and immediately called the fire brigade and local vet.

She said she feared the worst when she managed to reach Tuvak who was lying on top of a dead sheep.

'I thought he was dead. He was so cold and he wasn't moving, I really thought he'd had it. It was only when I saw his ear twitch I realised he was alive.'

Apart from spinal injuries, Tuvak was badly cut by the rusty barbed wire fence which originally stood round the mine but is now broken and ineffective.

'That mine is so dangerous — we all agreed if it had been a child down there it would have been dead, it's scary,' said Ms Roberts, who was full of praise for the firefighters who rescued Tuvak.

'They were brilliant, absolutely brilliant. They brought him up lashed to this stretcher and he looked so small,' she said.

'I can't thank them enough — and the vets who've been really good with him.'

Yelverton firefighter John German said: 'It was a pig's ear of a job.

'It was about half a mile from Magpie Bridge, down a sort of cave-cum-ravine.

'It was very slippery and there wasn't much room down there.'

Firefighter Kevin Brown went down the ravine and managed to tie the stretcher around Tuvak who was sedated by the vet at the scene.

Mr Brown said: 'It was wet, muddy and horrible. It was very steep and unstable as well. It was like a mineshaft going into the hillside with the crevice beside it.

The high-line fire and rescue team from Camel's Head was called to pull the 14-and-a-half stone dog out.

He was carried to Grenofen Bridge and taken to Town Farm Veterinary Unit at Horrabridge.

Vet Peter MacKellar said: 'His size meant although he got very cold he didn't die of hypothermia — if it wasn't for the dead sheep he was lying on he would have been considerably worse off.'

Mr MacKellar said Tuvak was paralysed and 'severely hypothermic'.

Last week the prospects for Tuvak's recovery were said to be 'not good' — but his condition has improved so much he is now being nursed at home.

'He can take his weight on his legs now, which is absolutely brilliant,' said Ms Roberts, who is keeping her fingers crossed for Tuvak's continued recovery.

'There should be no reason why he shouldn't be fine. He'll always have a slight weakness there but as long as he keeps improving like this, gets his rest and doesn't go mad — it would be a good Christmas present,' she said.