Mater is the Olson family dog. A 14-year-old beagle mix, he spends most of his time outside when he isn't following his owner around.
Last Friday, though, Mater didn't come home for dinner.
That's when Kathy Olson knew something was wrong.
Saturday went by. Then Sunday. Soon it was Thursday and there was still no sign of Mater.
"I was giving up hope that he was still alive," Olson said.
But she didn't know that her neighbors on Cottonwood Drive in Pinch had heard a dog barking for a week.
The bark sounded distressed, as if the dog were in trouble.
They had gone out looking for the source of the barks, but came up empty every time. The sound seemed to travel up and down the road.
But finally Thursday, someone followed the barks to a storm drain.
There was Mater, mouth agape, struggling to get out of the drain.
"We didn't know to look down," said Shonnette Mosier, one of the neighbors who looked for the dog.
Soon the Pinch Volunteer Fire Department came to the rescue.
First, they tried to pull Mater out of the storm drain, but he was stuck.
So they called West Virginia American Water to see if any crews in the area had a jackhammer. One crew was nearby and came over to help.
The firefighters and utility workers got to work sawing through the concrete, then a storm pipe, in attempts to set Mater free.
Soon there was a hole big enough for Lieutenant Corey Carr from the fire department to reach in. He had someone push Mater back into the pipe so Carr could pull the dog to safety.
"There he is," someone yelled. "Mater! Mater!"
Olson had her dog in her arms again.
"He was happy as could be," said Mosier, who saw Mater get pulled out of the drain. "He was wagging his tail and off down the road he went."
Olson took Mater to the veterinarian to get him checked out after the ordeal, and while the vet found a heart murmur, Mater is going to be just fine.
Now he's back in the safety of the Olson home with a big bowl of water, already having eaten a rib bone treat.
With Mater home safe, Olson isn't taking any chances. He won't be free to roam outside for a while - at least until she can get some kind of fence put up.
Reach Daniel Desrochers at dan.desrochers@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4886 or follow @drdesrochers on Twitter.