CENTRALIA, Wash. -- Nancy Punches didn't just wait a few hours to be rescued. She waited 36 hours, waist-deep in cold water and through the dark night. And that's not even the half of it.

Punches said when she first noticed the water coming into her house, it was only deep enough to tickle her ankles.

She normally can't even see the Chehalis River from her house, but when she looked out her window on Monday, she saw water flowing by her house and logs in tow.

"It looked like the river was above the road and logs were shooting down, I don't know how fast but you couldn't hardly focus on 'em," she said.

A breeder of foxhounds, Punches' first thought turned to her 16 dogs, all of whom were outside the house. She made several runs outside and managed to scoop up her four puppies.

"When I first got the puppies, the water was ankle deep. (I) got them out, went back and it was up to my calf, the third trip out, it was filling my boots," she said. "I was afraid that with the things shooting between my legs that I'd get knocked down and I'd be a goner," she said.

A fourth trip could have been her last.

Punches rushed inside with the puppies as the water continued to rise to within 10 inches of the ceiling. She used a wet bookcase as a life raft for herself and the pups. Cold, wet and shivering, she waited for the 8 feet of water to recede.

"Everything had tipped over in the house, everything -- refrigerator, stove, everything. I was getting worried then, I couldn't see any way out," she said.

Punches clutched to her puppies and lasted through the night. After what seemed like years later, she finally heard voices outside.

Punches called out to the rescuers until they reached her and her puppies. She was airlifted to the hospital, where she found out her toes were completely frostbitten. But Punches is expected to recover and she is grateful.

"So somebody was watching over me," she said. "I hope I never have to tell another story like that."

Punches' 12 other dogs remain unaccounted for. She believes one of them might have survived, but doesn't believe the rest were as fortunate.

She plans to sell just three of the rescued puppies. Punches said during the long 36-hour wait, one of the puppies kept crawling up through the neck hole of her sweatshirt and rubbing on her face and neck. Punches said she has decided to keep the puppy and name him "Noah".