PITTSTON — Two dogs that plunged through the ice were rescued Sunday.

Pittston Fire Chief Jason Farris said people walking by a bog on Route 194 reported the dogs had gone through the ice and were struggling in the water.

Farris said his crews arrived and quickly secured the scene to keep onlookers from attempting to save the dogs at risk to themselves.

He said the emergency call came in at about 5:30 p.m.

“We called Gardiner rescue and they came with their ice rescue sled and cold-water suits and they went out and rescued the dogs,” Farris said Monday. “One of the dogs got out and ran. The other one was so hypothermic it couldn’t move.”

Farris said he carried the six-month old black Labrador retriever to the back of a rescue truck where attempts were made to warm it up with heat packs and blankets.

Advertisement

The puppy was taken to the Gardiner Fire Department where a firefighter drove it to the animal emergency clinic in Lewiston.

“Somehow they found the owner of the dog that ran off; he went back to the house so that dog’s safe,” he said. “The emergency vet said the other one was highly hypothermic, and wasn’t sure he would make it. But he thought the prognosis was more positive than negative.”

Farris said the owner of the two dogs lived a mile away on Stage Road in Pittston. The dog that ran back home was a black German shepherd.

He said the dogs broke through the ice in a bog near the old grange hall. The bog is between two and six feet deep in different spots, he said.

“The dogs would have drown if those people hadn’t been walking by,” he said. “The puppy would have definitely drowned.”

Gardiner and Pittston rescue crews were at the scene. Farris would not release the name of the dogs’ owner.

— Mechele Cooper — 621-5663

mcooper@centralmaine.com

 


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.