LEWISTON – As far as Katelin Spencer is concerned, Gary Brousseau is the best uncle in the world. And all Brousseau had to do to earn the adoration was crawl through 100 yards of cold, dark sewer pipe to save a shivering puppy on the other end.

By the time the 3-hour ordeal was over Friday, the German shepherd puppy was hungry, the Spencer family was delirious with gratitude, and Brousseau was looking forward to a hot shower.

The ordeal began about 3 p.m. when the 5-month-old puppy named Kiya slipped outdoors and ran into a sewer pipe. It did so by squeezing through an opening in a thick, metal grate that covered the drain near the family’s Foster Street home.

Fire crews who responded used their equipment to cut the metal grate away from the end of the 3-foot pipe. Animal Control Officer Wendell Strout tried to lure the puppy out of the pipe with various tricks and enticements.

No go.

While 9-year-old Katelin fretted and nearly a dozen people joined the rescue effort, Kiya crouched in the pipe with her feet in 2 inches of water. She shivered in the dark and refused to budge.

“It was scary,” said Kelly Spencer, Katelin’s mother. “It was really scary. I didn’t think we were every going to get her out.”

Firefighters had done as much as they could. Strout had exhausted all of his tricks for coaxing dogs from sewer pipes. It looked like a long, cold night of worry for the Spencer family.

Enter uncle Gary Brousseau. Like any good uncle, the 43-year-old Brousseau decided the best approach was a direct one. He would sneak up behind the dog and haul her out from the other end of the pipe.

Brousseau hunted for a manhole cover a football field length away, lowered a ladder into the narrow opening, and got down to it.

“She didn’t want to come out,” Brousseau said. “Something had to be done.”

The Auburn man squeezed himself into the narrow opening and began crawling on his hands and knees. There were strange bends in the pipe. There were spots where water deepened from just a few inches to elbow deep.

“The water filled my boots a little bit,” Brousseau said.

In the dark, with icy water beneath him and the cool confines of the pipe around him, Brousseau crawled under streets and houses until he reached the dog at the other end.

“I got right up to her,” Brousseau said. “I thought she’d come right out, but she didn’t want to.”

So, the resourceful uncle produced a dog leash, made a slip knot and maneuvered it around the dog’s neck. Together, man and beast made their way out of the sewer.

“Gary is amazing,” said Kelly Spencer, whose husband broke his leg earlier this week and had to watch the rescue effort instead of participating in it.

Brousseau and Kiya were both wet and slicked with mud. But minutes later, at about 6 p.m., the family had the dog bundled in a blanket and they were at the Animal Emergency Rescue Clinic on Strawberry Avenue. The brown-faced dog sat on a table with icicles hanging from her fur.

“She’s a little cold and a lot nervous,” said Dr. Erich Baumann. “She’s actually looking real good, all things considered.”

Baumann fed the dog, took her temperature and then X-rayed the beleaguered pet. He administered a shot for pain, assured the worried family and declared the dog was fit to return to its home.

“My guess?” he said. “She’s going to go home and go to sleep.”

Kelly and her daughter Katelin, who have had the dog for only three days, were trying to come up with ways to thank uncle Gary. They were also impressed with Strout and firefighters who first responded to the call.

“They all went above and beyond,” Kelly Spencer said. “They were all terrific. I thought that was pretty wonderful.”