Harris Levinson let his two dogs out in his yard the Sunday after Thanksgiving, fully expecting they would be there to greet him when he returned from Seattle later that day.

But when Levinson got home, his yard was empty, and a three-week odyssey began that culminated with six firefighters helping to free the dogs from a 28-foot abandoned well from the property next door.

For Levinson, who teaches at Vashon High School, it was a long, lonely few weeks.

“It was hard,” Levinson said. “They animate my home and are important parts of my life, and I was fairly distraught.”

Every day after work Levinson called for them — a German Shepherd mix named Squash and a black lab mix named Ocha — until he was hoarse. He felt they had to be relatively close by; they had collars with their names and his phone number, and he placed “missing dogs” posters across the Island, but his yard remained empty.

And then two days before Christmas, he got a tip.

A young man staying with a neighbor called to say he had seen a skinny black lab by his driveway the day before. Levinson met him where he had seen the lab slip into the woods and began looking in that direction — a stretch of forest he was familiar with.

“She was this close,” Levinson recalled thinking. “I am going to find her.”

As he went deeper into the forest, calling for his dogs, he began to hear faint but familiar barks. He followed the sound as it grew louder and louder until he reached a downed tree. There, at the end of the tree, was a hole about six feet in diameter, and at the bottom of that hole — a long way down — were his two dogs, ecstatic to see him.

“They’re saying, ‘Come and get me,’ and, of course, I can’t,” Levinson said.

So he called for help. The 911 dispatcher said she was not certain they could help him and would have to talk to her supervisor and call him back. While waiting, he called King County Animal Control, which could not help. The 911 dispatcher, meanwhile, did not call back, Levinson said, so he headed home to make some more calls, and a firefighter rolled up his driveway, notified by the dispatcher after all. The two went to the well, and the firefighter, seeing the situation, called for backup. Two more firefighters responded.

“Then it was this fascinating period of problem-solving,” said Levinson, recalling the scene.

After a bit, three more firefighters arrived.

The ground around the well opening was soft and unstable, according to Chief Hank Lipe, who arrived on the scene toward the end of rescue, which he called “consuming and complex.” Finally, the firefighters lowered an extension ladder into the shaft. Not knowing how the dogs would react to their presence, they asked Levinson if he would be willing to go down.

“I was thrilled,” Levinson.

Harnessed and roped, he climbed down to the bottom of the hole, which narrowed to a mere four feet or so in diameter — a crowded space, with his two dogs, the ladder and himself, he said. He had a dog rescue harness with him and put the first dog in, and the firefighters pulled her up.

“It was totally Chilean miners after that,” Levinson said.

Above ground, Lipe had alerted Fair Isle Animal Clinic, and when Levinson arrived, the clinic was ready for several possibilities. The dogs, miraculously, seemed fine — thin, but uninjured and not hypothermic.

Levinson cancelled a trip to Texas he had planned for the next day.

“I got the feeling I was supposed to stay with them,” he said.

The dogs, which lost about 15 pounds each, are eating frequently and are settling back in. Squash is back to her usual self, Levinson said, but the lab, usually the happier of the two, is glum and staying close to Levinson.

Now with his dogs back home, Levinson said he feels grateful to those who kept an eye out for his pets during their absence and to fire department personnel, whose decision to prioritize the rescue made for a remarkable ending.

Still, questions linger — questions he will likely never have the answers to. He does not know how long the dogs were in the well. He imagines Squash fell in first and then Ocha tried to get help for her and fell in herself. He also doesn’t understand why they didn’t break any bones on their long tumble down.

The well, which was dry, belongs to Levinson’s next-door neighbor Lauren Chinn.

Chinn, who owns 10 acres, did not know the well was there, he said, and planned to tend to it last weekend so nothing like this would ever happen again. Levinson said he has offered to help with the work.

Chinn is thankful that the dogs were OK and is also grateful he never fell into the well himself. The opening had been covered with timbers by a previous owner, he said, and those had rotted through and must have broken under the dogs’ weight. The area is so thick with brush, Chinn said, “You can’t hardly see your feet.”

While this story ended well, it is a cautionary tale for dog owners. Lipe noted that this is the second time in his two-year tenure as fire chief that the department has rescued a dog from a well, and in 2006, a dog fell into an old cistern at Lisabeula and drowned.

Home with his dogs, Levinson said he is considering replacing his invisible fence with a real fence. Chinn has offered to lend a hand.