SHELBY COUNTY, Tenn. — Shelby County firefighters jumped into action early Monday morning to rescue a 160-pound dog that had fallen through an ice-covered pond in northeast Shelby County.
The owners of the two-year-old Great Dane told firefighters they let three of their dogs out at around 7:30 a.m. and one of the dogs quickly returned and alerted them something was wrong.
When they looked outside they saw their dog Zoey was in the middle of their frozen pond.
“We think the dog might have chased a squirrel onto the ice. We don’t know why it ran out there,” said Brent Perkins with the Shelby County Fire Department. “The other two dogs stayed on the bank but that one ran out and it couldn’t have been more centered on the pond.”
The dog’s owners tried to save their dog by jumping into the frigid water but couldn’t get to her because of the ice and called 911.
The Shelby County Fire Department doesn’t normally perform animal rescues, but because people were involved sent firefighters from Engine 69, 66, and Battalion 22 to help.
“It was incredible to watch. They were like Paul Bunyan or something going out there and beating that ice and getting that boat out there it was incredible to watch,” said Perkins.
The firefighters used the homeowner’s small paddle boat to bring the large dog to the shore. The whole thing took less than 30 minutes but rescue crews estimate the dog was literally hanging onto the ice for more than an hour.
“She was really working and looking at those two firefighters with earnest saying come get me, come get me, come get me because she had nothing left from her abdomen to her hind feet. They just would not move,” Perkins said.
Zoey was checked out by a veterinarian but is already back home. Her owners were grateful to firefighters for saving her life, they delivered lunch to their fire stations.
Over the last week, local rescue crews have responded to several incidents involving children falling through frozen ice. They are glad this rescue had a happy ending.
“Everybody needs a little sunshine and today we sure got it. We were thrown into the middle of a high-stakes thing and we were able to put some effort and our guys got the dog out. It’s a real miracle,” Perkins said.
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Also Monday, Walls Elementary School Resource Officer, Kevin King pulled a German Shepherd from a frozen private lake on Woodland Lake Drive in Hernando, Mississippi.
The man who owns the lake said he wasn’t home at the time but a neighbor saw the dog fall through the ice and called the Desoto County Sheriff’s Department.
Jeff Hobbs said the dog is back at his home and doing fine.
