Scary Swimming Incident

[mrsnamsherf]

I had to rescue my Sam from a lake two weeks ago. He was trapped by an underwater branch when retrieving a toy, and could not get to shallow water. I had to locate the branch by feeling around with my hands-not a super informative method. I pushed him along the branch toward deeper water and he was able to swim around it. He wasn't far from shore, so I let him try to figure it out on his own first, but when his back end started to sink, I knew he needed help. Stupid thing was, I was at fault. He got caught because I threw his toy near a fallen tree. I had read warnings about this, but didn't realize how hazardous it could be. I could not even see the branch that trapped him, and the lake bottom was oozy and poor footing. I prayed to God I would be able to free Sam. Our dogs are amazing swimmers, but trees underwater are dangerous. He had even tried to go around on his own but did not go far enough to get loose. Fortunately, he knew I was trying to help him and did not panic or resist.

On a lighter note, he displayed his true water dog nature-he never let go of the toy!

Marie

 

[wrknnwf]

What an amazing story! So glad you got him loose. I'd never thought about underwater branches, so am glad you pointed it out!

 

[fall3n-ang3l]

Thank god you were there and able to free him x

 

[ajcooksey]

So scary! I'm so glad you were able to help him!

 

[lmfoltyn]

That would have been so scary! Thank goodness you were able to help him...

 

[DAWNMERIE]

So glad you were able to handle the situation. It is scary....very scary. It's always been something in the back of my mind when my pups go to our lake (just cause I know what the little teenage-buggers do) I've seen shopping carts and last year they even took out a car from our lake. So glad Sam is ok, and it is the scare of a lifetime I'm sure and more reason we all go grey.

 

[victoria1140]

Glad you are all ok and thanks for the heads up

 

[KS Newf]

So scary! Thank God it had a happy ending!

 

[R Taft]

Wow......good thing everyone kept their cool..was he caught up on his collar??

 

[mrsnamsherf]

Thank you all for understanding. My close family members are not dog folks and they don't understand why I was so bothered by this. I think they don't realize the difficulty involved or how I feel about Sam. I don't know. But I appreciate very much you all understanding.

Ronnie, he was not caught by his collar, he was caught in the vee made by the branch and the tree trunk. He kept trying to swim through the branch toward shore. The branch was long and he did not understand he had to swim away from shore to be free of the limb. He was too tired to keep swimming much longer-we had already been retrieving for 45 mins or so. I had to go in and show him the way out. I was proud of him though-he did try to swim different ways around at first, and he did not panic. Just kept swimming.