There’s a lot to love about dogs, but their boundless enthusiasm and endless curiosity have put them at the center of so many adorable situations.
And while the downside of those traits is that they can lead them to constantly bark at anything unfamiliar, they’ve also been lifesaving as hero dogs only end up in the right place at the right time because they wondered what was going on there.
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But at the same time, those eager instincts have also been known to get dogs into their share of trouble. And that’s especially true in areas with a lot of water, as there have been multiple cases in which dogs put themselves in danger of drowning by suddenly running away from their owners to follow something interesting.
Since we never know when that could happen, one story of life-threatening peril carries an important lesson.
On February 6, a woman in Liberty Township, Ohio was walking her dog when it broke away from her.
As People reported , it’s unclear what had caught its attention, but it ran onto a frozen pond covered in thin ice. Before long, it fell through that ice into the freezing cold waters below.
Since this was an obvious recipe for life-threatening hypothermia (not to mention drowning), the woman tried to save her pet by crawling onto the ice towards it. However, this only led her to fall into the same predicament.
Fortunately for the both of them, Deputy Evan Depew of the Butler Country Sheriff’s Office happened to be on a routine patrol that day.
And since the sheriff’s office identified him as a trained member of an Emergency Response Services in a Facebook post , he was equipped to handle the situation when he received a call about what was unfolding.
In their words, “The quick response to this call saved the life of a woman and her dog.”
Once he arrived, Depew was able to pull both the woman and the dog to safety and neither had incurred any serious injuries by that point.
After this point, both victims were wrapped in blankets and treated by EMTs before the woman explained to Depew how they both got there.
For Sheriff Richard K. Jones, the incident served to illustrate why it’s important for deputies to be trained in technical rescue scenarios as Depew was.
But this story also serves as a warning for pet owners who find themselves in a similar situation.
As a representative from the Poudre Fire Authority told The Coloradoan , those who witness their pets fall through ice should immediately call 911 and make no attempt to rescue them themselves.
Because as hard as it is to bring yourself to do that when it comes to a beloved member of the family, the likelihood is that intervening will only put you in need of rescue as well.
As Fire Captain Jon McKeon put it, “If the ice isn’t strong enough to hold a dog, it’s not going to be strong enough to hold a person.”
h/t: People
