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Beaumont, TX—Gold and platinum may fill the showcases at Alter’s Gem Jewelry, but when jeweler Brian Alter goes home, Copper is more precious than either of the noble metals.

Copper is a two-year-old husky that Alter and his family adopted from the Humane Society on April 23. “Whenever one of our kids leaves home, we seem to go get another dog,” he told TV reporters after the dog escaped and ended up in a drainage pipe.

Copper got his name from his distinctive red coloring. “He looks like a fox,” Alter told The Centurion. “Lori [Alter’s wife] calls him her ‘Foxy Loxy.’”

True to the husky breed—and new to the family—Copper hasn’t yet learned not to bolt out an open door, even if that door is open only for a split second. Huskies are known for bolting and running, and that’s just what Copper did when Lori Alter opened the door: he took off after Minnie, the Alters’ cat, who was outside roaming around. The cat disappeared into a drainage pipe under the Alters’ driveway, with Copper in hot pursuit. Except Minnie, who is an outdoor-savvy cat, has been in the pipe many times and knew where she was going, says Alter; Copper didn’t.

Alter called the city, but he was told there was no possible way Copper could be in the drainpipe. The Alters searched the neighborhood for four hours, to no avail.

After a sleepless night, Brian Alter took the family’s other two dogs for a walk around 4:30 a.m., hoping perhaps they’d get the scent of Copper. He brought Copper’s leash just in case. Indeed, the two dogs ran straight to a storm grate in a culvert about a block away from the house, and stopped. Using the flashlight app on his phone, Alter spotted both husky and cat calmly sitting in the drain looking up through the grate. Alter was right: Copper is small enough to fit in the drainpipe.

Brian Alter, left, sits with a rescue worker waiting for the city of Beaumont, TX to remove the storm grate so they could get his dog, Copper, out. Alter was able to reach down and attach Copper's leash to his collar and get food and water down to him while they waited.

A former city councilman, Alter called in a few markers to help get the grate top removed, while he managed to reach down and get Copper’s leash attached to his collar, and get food and water down to him. Copper stayed remarkably calm, says Alter, and after about four hours, between city workers and animal rescue, he was pulled to safety. Minnie, meanwhile, decided three dogs were just too much at once, and went home her own way back through the drainpipe.  She showed up a few hours later, meowing for breakfast at the Alters’ back door as usual.

“We’re so relieved to have him home,” Alter told The Centurion.

Copper’s tale made local news. To watch the news report on KFDM-TV, click here.