A pair of men leapt into action to rescue a stranded dog that fell through the ice on the southern shores of Wood Lake in B.C.’s Okanagan Valley on Wednesday.
Dylan Cocqit told CTV Vancouver that he heard the border collie yelping as it tried in vain to climb out of the chilly water and onto the nearby ice.
“It’s crying the entire time, like shrieking,” Cocqit said. “It was hard to hear that poor puppy crying.”
In a desperate attempt to save the freezing dog, Cocqit picked up a weight and tried to break a path through the ice while he was still in his pyjamas.
Another neighbour, Bill Varner, witnessed what Cocqit was doing and became worried about the young man’s safety. He yelled out to Cocqit, who was knee-deep in the icy water already, and warned that he would cramp up from the cold before he even reached the border collie.
“That was my first thought when I saw him,” Varner said. “I thought, 'Oh my God. If he's going to go out there, he might not make it.'"
Varner said he looked around for a safer alternative and spotted a fibreglass canoe on a nearby property. The two men grabbed the canoe and used it as an icebreaker to clear the way to the stranded dog.
“Because I was in the front (of the canoe), I just started wiggling in the canoe and breaking the ice and he’d paddle,” Varner said.
The resourceful pair managed to reach the border collie just as it was nearing exhaustion. The men pulled the dog aboard the canoe and brought it back to shore safely.
Cocqit said he called the dog’s owner as soon as they reached land. He said she was overjoyed when she found out that her pet was safe.
“She was just ecstatic over the phone and she thanked me,” Cocqit said. “It was good to hear and I’m just glad I was at the right place at the right time."
With a report from CTV Vancouver's Kent Molgat
