Toko Mouth farmer Simon Davies found his dog quietly waiting in his kennel after he spent about 40 minutes chainsawing through the massive pieces of wood that covered the kennel.
The tree collapsed during a storm about two weeks ago, which caused widespread damage across farms in Southland, Clutha and Otago.
"The kennel was completely obliterated and I thought the dog was dead for all money," Mr Davies said.
After cutting his way to the kennel, he got down on his hands and knees and could see Murphy in the kennel.
"I poked my hand in and he moved.
"He hadn’t made a peep for the 40 minutes while I was working with the saw, and then he was actually fairly keen to get out."
Murphy, a Labrador retriever, was completely fine and injury-free.
Mr Davies said that was the biggest "near miss" he experienced during the winds.
All his stock survived, but there was about $200,000 of damage to infrastructure around the farm.
A seven-bay hay shed had been obliterated, a sheep yard had been destroyed and there was about a kilometre of smashed fences under trees.
Two of his staff had been working fulltime for the past two weeks clearing trees off roads.
The power was restored in Toko Mouth last Sunday and until then the farm had been powered by a 6kVA generator.
The farm was still recovering from the damage caused by the floods in October last year when the storm hit.
For the past 10 days, he had been dealing with the "most urgent" repair work, but he knew there was a lot more work ahead.
"Look it’s frustrating, but you have to kind of accept in the farming game weather is a big player and you can’t control it."
