Perhaps the power of a mother’s love could explain how Jill survived over an hour and a half in freezing water after she fell through ice Friday morning.
Local emergency personnel were called to Dinkys Auction Center at 9 a.m. after two men working there looked out and saw what they thought were two people flailing in the nearby pond. Upon arrival, responders found it was two dogs who had fallen through the ice into the chilly water.
Paramedic Tammy Burton saw the male black lab, Jack, go underwater. He never resurfaced.
But chocolate lab Jill, who is due to deliver Jack’s puppies next month, hung on until brothers Darvin and Abraham Knepp broke through the ice to save her.
Deputy Dave Fleming, who videotaped the incident, said they asked if they could go out on the ice in boats they had on the other side of the pond. He said he could not tell them one way or the other because they would be putting their lives in danger.
“(Fleming) said it was just dogs and they were just going to let them go, and I thought that was just kind of sad,” said Abraham Knepp, who lives near Dinkys and came out to help when he heard two men had fallen through the ice.
The Knepps decided to go out in two boats but could not break through the ice. Even when they went out together on one boat, they could not break through until they had scooted the boat across the ice to the hole where Jill was waiting for them, recounted Burton. Then, they were able to break a path through the ice so the dog could swim back to shore; they could not lift the large dog into the boat for fear of tipping it over.
As her saviors edged closer, Jill became more eager, said Knepp. She started paddling towards the boat, even managing to break some of the ice herself.
“Those boys need to be praised because no one else was willing to (rescue the dogs),” said Burton.
Ambulance workers stayed on the scene to offer medical assistance should one of the young men fall through the ice themselves. As she watched the rescue, Burton remembers thinking the dog had to be a lab to stay in the water so long.
“I couldn’t believe how big she was that she could stay up as long,” added Knepp. “That was a miracle.”
Once Jill was on shore, she took off running, which surprised Fleming, who figured she would be exhausted after treading water for so long.
“From my experience in search and rescue in the Navy, I guess the water was 35 or 36 degrees, and in water temperatures like that, a person who hits the water, they go into immediate shock, which is a natural reaction for body,” said Fleming. “(They’d last) somewhere between five and seven minutes.”
Knepp said Jill was shaking when she climbed out of the water but would not let him get close.
Burton also tried to follow the dog once she was out of the water so she could take her to the veterinarian. She could see the dog’s belly moving, but she wasn’t sure if it was the puppies kicking or early contractions. Even though she wasn’t able to catch Jill, Burton did eventually meet with Jill’s owner Doug Swartzentruber, who took Jill home and put her in front of a heater. Jill was one tough dog to survive being in the water as long as she was, but Burton doesn’t know how the unborn puppies will fair after the chilly ordeal.
“(Jill) was happy to be out and was walking fine,” she said.
Friday evening, Swartzentruber, who often took the dogs to work, said Jill seemed to be doing well, and she had not delivered her puppies prematurely.
Jill’s rescue and Jack’s death, though unfortunate, gave emergency workers training which they could use should a human fall through ice in the coming years.
“Every time we go out on calls, I learn something new,” said Fleming. “It makes people in this type of work better at what they do. We had all the resources there that we needed if there were people in the water. I appreciate everybody showing up as quick as they did. The people at Dinkys and the surrounding area heard us coming and came out to see if they could lend assistance. It’s just a super community pulling together just like they did during the tornado. If rest of the country could pull together like this county pulls together, we’d have a wonderful place to live.”
Assisting Southwest Medical personnel and sheriff’s deputies were a conservation officer and state police.
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Dog rescued from icy pond
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