In Long Island, a Dog Has a Narrow Escape from an Icy Lake

Firefighters rescue a dog who ran too far and had ice collapse -- it was the second rescue in a week.

Firefighters in Long Island, New York, pulled an overenthusiastic dog from a frozen lake Wednesday, narrowly saving him from an icy death.

Teddy, a three-year-old Labrador Retriever and Collie mix was walking with his owner, Mary Ann Nesdill, in a park when he heard the irresistible sound of geese. Nesdill says that Teddy immediately "took off" in hot pursuit and ran onto the surface of a frozen lake, which collapsed under him.

"I thought I was going to lose him," Nesdill said. "He was howling, and when I looked out, half of his body was in the water and the other half pawing at a piece of ice that was keeping him afloat."

The dog was about 250 feet from shore when the Rockville Centre Fire Department came. Teddy clung to the chunk of ice for almost 30 minutes while firefighter Danny Leboff crawled across the lake, tethered to the shore.

"The dog kept yowling, and I knew I had to get him," Leboff said.

Two other firefighters followed with an inflatable raft. If anything, Teddy's accident was well-timed; the department had practiced the same procedure on the same lake just last week.

"He was so far out, I could barely see him out there," Nesdill said. "He was struggling to get out of the hole in the ice. I thought we were going to lose him. I thought he was gone. He was howling, crying the whole time, breaking my heart."

When Teddy was pulled from the water, he was shivering, with ice caked around his midsection. According to John Foy, the veterinarian who treated Teddy afterward, the rescuers got to him just in the nick of time.

"Had he spent more than 30 minutes in there, I'm not sure he would have made it," Foy said.

He credits Teddy's survival not only to the fast action of the RCFD, but to Teddy's thick coat.

"He's a lucky boy," he said to Newsday. "That's all I can say. He's got a nice coat, and that's what saved this guy. He's lucky."

It may have been a terrifying 30 minutes for Teddy and Mary Ann Nesdill, but from the videos it looks like he's recovered quickly. Even in the vet's office, his tail is wagging, and he looks like he wants nothing more than to go chase more birds.

Via NBC New York, Newsday, and Gothamist

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Alleged Drunk Driver Can’t Escape Nose of Michigan Police Dog

Michigan police dog Brix stares intently at a Jackson County Sheriff’s Deputy, who is holding a coveted toy.

There’s one thing I’ve learned while doing the research for my book, Soldier Dogs, which comes out next week (Wow, next week! I am very excited! Please check out my website or Facebook page to learn more.):

Little escapes the nose of a well-trained law-enforcement dog. No high-tech machinery can take its place.

Such was the case Sunday evening with a German Shepherd named Brix, a Jackson County (Mich.) Sheriff’s Department K9. Brix was assisting his handler, who was pursuing an alleged drunk driver who’d had an accident and fled the scene.

It was a difficult place for tracking, especially because it was a swampy area. But it probably didn’t hurt that the driver was barefoot. Try as we may to be all clean and fresh, we humans smell very potent to our canine friends. Here’s how Alexandra Horowitz puts it in her excellent book, Inside of a Dog.

“Humans stink. The human armpit is one of the most profound sources of odor produced by any animal; our breath is a confusing melody of smells; our genitals reek. The organ that covers our body — our skin — is itself covered in sweat and sebaceous glands, which are regularly churning out fluid and oils holding our particular brand of scent. When we touch objects, we leave a bit of ourselves on them; a slough of skin, with its clutch of bacteria steadily munching and excreting away. This is our smell, our signature odor.”

As you have surely figured out by now, the dog found his man. His smelly man. His rapturously odiferous man with bare feet. And as if that weren’t reward enough, Brix probably also got loads of praise from his handler, and maybe even a ball to chonk on for a minute.

Dogs are so cool, aren’t they?

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