My dog owes me big time.

My girlfriend has been taking Frankie, our husky, for walks around Trout Lake here in Vancouver. For the last month or so during this cold snap we've been having, there's been a relatively thin layer of ice on the lake. I met her there today, and the first thing I commented on was that I was a little leery of Frankie (as well as the other dogs) going out on this thin ice and falling through. She said it hadn't appeared to have been a problem the numerous times she's been there. Okay fine.

We walked around the lake to an area where there was a patch of open water with about a hundred ducks in it. Frankie won't swim, but she'll go into the water up to her chest and splash around. So Frankie was running around and the ducks were laughing at her because she couldn't reach them. All of a sudden Frankie bolts around to where there's ice near the shore and runs out onto the ice. You just know what's coming next, don't you?

Frankie gets to the edge of the ice to try and get closer to the ducks and she then falls through the ice. She's about 50 feet from the shore and instead of trying to swim for the shore (which she could do if she tried), she instead panics and trys to climb back up onto the ice. The ice just breaks and she can't get up on it. We're calling and calling her and trying to convince her to swim to us. No dice. She starts crying and yelping which begins to attract a crowd. At this point I still wasn't worried because huskies have a very thick coat of fur, and I knew she wasn't yet suffering from the cold. However, I could tell she was panicking, and my girlfriend was also starting to do dumb things, like walking out on the ice to get to the dog!

I could see things were getting out of hand, so off came my boots and my socks and my jacket and into the water I went. As I say, Frankie was about 50 feet from the shore, and after about three steps in the frigid water I couldn't feel my toes anymore! Luckily the water was very shallow and by the time I got out to her the water was just below the family jewels. I grabbed Frankie's collar with one hand and put my other hand under her chest and picked her up. I was immediately taken by how fast and hard Frankie's heart was pounding! I carried her back to shore admist a round of applause from all the onlookers. Frankie was none the worse for wear after a good shake.

I came home and had a hot bath. I can now feel my toes again.

 

Wow - glad to hear all are safe.

Thanks guys.

I was talking to the park caretaker afterwards, and he said every time Trout Lake freezes over that unfortunately one or two dogs end up drowning at some point. Sad but true.

I guess what happens is that they fall through the ice in the middle of the lake which makes getting to them next to impossible.

I was fortunate that there was clear water between the shore and where Frankie was hanging on to the edge of the ice. This allowed me to wade out to her. If the water had been deeper, it also would've been possible to swim out to her. However, when dogs go through holes in the ice and they're surrounded by thin ice, then it becomes awfully difficult to get to them safely.

Oh, that would be heartbreaking to watch your dog drown because you couldn't get to it without sacrificing yourself in the process.

I think the lesson to be learned here is to avoid large frozen bodies of water unless the ice is perfectly safe for dogs and people to walk on. For us there will be no more off-leash visits to Trout Lake until the ice is gone. I love Frankie too much to lose her while taking unnecessary risks.

By the way, at least one person did shoot video of the rescue on their cell phone. I'm not sure about YouTube, but no, it didn't make the 6 o'clock news. 

 

Hey.....Patrick,

Good job on the video. What a great looking dog.

Cheers - Nigel

Great story...never knew you had this dog as I love Huskies, had one myself...glad everyone is safe and sound:)

Yup...he's a beautiful dog...I had a Siberian Timberwolf, she was a runt, saved her from this F%^%#^ who was a dog sled tour guide in Whister that was inter-breading them...chain them up to trees and have at it.  My secretary at the time told me about how she went to buy a dog from him and saw her, she would not have survived as all he fed them was meat and the toughest made it.

I went there and made him a offer, he said, no, come back in a week and if she's alive you can have her, but he knew she would not make it and that's what he was worried about...a fricken refund!!!, I didn't care about that but he didn;t care...so with a few staff that worked for me, we went in the middle of the night and dog napped her...amazing girl she was:)

I do...I'll have to scan for you

Hey Patrick and for those who like doggies:)...found the only pics I have and scanned:

When she was a pup:


The Stud:


Proud Mom:

Hey bud...I'll reply below:)

Patrick wrote: Brian, great shots, but now I've got more questions! 1) What was her name?Tia 2) How long did you have her? With my girlfriend at the time, almost 3 years.  I left Whislter and she kept the dogs, was the hardest thing to leave, but a very nasty relationship and where I moved too I could not keep her...we also had 3 cats. 3) How long ago did she pass away? My ex contacted me to say hello on Facebook recently and she said Tia passed away a few years ago, so she lived for almost 14 years, Pugg the daughter passed away shortly after in depression she thinks.  That was one of our issues, she went ahead and knocked her up when she not even 1 years old, and Tia had 3 still-births, and ony 2 pups survived...but Tia almost passed away to tonix shock as she had to have an emergency C-section. 4) I somehow got the impression from what you had earlier posted that you had saved her from that jerk at Whistler while he was trying to breed her, but you appear to have gotten her as pup. Is that right? Correct...and years later the city ran him out of town:) 5) What kind of dog was the "stud" that you bred her with? He was a ShepPard/Rotty 6) How many puppies did she have and what became of them? Answered above:) She looks like a fine dog. Quite different than a purebred Husky as she's more lanky. I guess that's the Timberwolf in her! Very interesting combination.Ya...a lot of Timber in her, she was maybe 70lbs...again the guy was inter-breading the dogs.  My secratary's dog was deaf, from the same litter I think She looks exhausted in that shot of her with the two pups! She went through a lot...  * (Brian, any chance you could substitute the shots below with the ones you have in your post above? I've re-sized them to 800 pixels width as images wider than that cause a real problem for those of us running 1024x768 screen resolution. With wider images, not only can we not see the entire image, but the whole thread now needs to be scrolled back and forth side to side to read the posts. If you could make the switch, then I can delete the images in my post. Thanks!) Sorry...Photobucket:(...

Yes...heard that several times:)...she have seen her when I put on the harness and she pulled me on my roller blades along the Valley Trails in Whistler...loved to run.

Kerstin and I certainly have our eye on a pure Syberian like Frankie when we have a larger place...and time:)