An hourlong struggle ends in the nick of time, as a firefighter braves ice on the Kennebec River.
By Craig Crosby
Portland Press Herald (Maine)
Copyright 2007 Blethen Maine Newspapers, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
WATERVILLE, Maine — Mitzy, a 6-year-old mutt, was back with her very relieved owner Monday after nearly drowning in the Kennebec River.
The dog struggled for an hour to climb onto a sheet of ice before Waterville Firefighter Rodney Alderman pulled her to safety.
Mitzy rebounded quickly from hypothermia and by afternoon was resting at the side of her owner, Donna Goggin.
“She’s great,” Goggin said by phone from her Colonial Street residence. “I’ve got her right here.”
Mitzy’s misadventure began around 9 a.m. Monday when Goggin was getting her two dogs out of the car at her home. Both dogs - Mitzy and Pescia - bolted after a cat. Pescia soon returned, but Mitzy, a border collie-hound-beagle mix, stayed on the feline’s trail.
“I looked as long as I could, but I had to go to work,” Goggin said. “She does this periodically.”
Goggin theorized that the 6-year-old Mitzy chased the cat across Main Street and down to the river before falling in.
The dog was found trying to climb up onto the ice around 10 a.m. by two people walking near Two-Cent Bridge.
Police and bystanders yelled encouragement to the dog from shore, approximately 150 feet away, as Mitzy’s front paws scratched and clawed on the ice trying to gain a grip.
Some who watched were moved to tears by the dog’s plight.
At times, Mitzy would simply rest, and her constant stream of heart-wrenching yelps would grow louder. Then the cries of, “C’mon boy,” from shore would pick up again and Mitzy would scramble some more.
Firefighters arrived at a nearby parking lot just as Mitzy lost her grip on the ice and paddled further down the sheet of ice toward the waterfalls.
Firefighters, including Alderman who was dressed in a cold-water-rescue suit, climbed down the bank to the shore. Alderman, tethered to a rope wrapped around a tree and guided by fellow firefighters, walked, then crawled, on the ice toward Mitzy.
The ice at the edge broke just as Alderman grabbed the dog’s collar. Firefighters pulled up the slack as Alderman pushed the dog back onto the ice.
Mitzy began to stagger away in the general direction of the shoreline until Alderman climbed back onto the ice, lifted the dog up and carried her.
Alderman said he doubts the dog would have lasted much longer in the freezing water.
"(She) was pretty weak,” he said.
By 3 p.m., Mitzy was finally back at home - after a stay at the veterinarian’s and a stop at the Waterville fire station, where Goggin expressed her thanks and firefighters took pictures.
“They were excited to see her,” Goggin said. “I gave them a big hug.”
Mitzy is scheduled for a check-up today.
Coincidentally, Alderman said, Waterville firefighters recently underwent water-rescue training in New Hampshire. Monday’s incident was the first time the department had used the cold-water-rescue suit in an actual emergency.