A small dog is safe at home after he was rescued from the muddy banks of the Petitcodiac River in Riverview, N.B.
Tracy and Jamie Arnold took Rupert, their four-year-old mini Goldendoodle, for a walk in their neighbourhood Tuesday morning.
They said a dog that wasn’t leashed started nipping at Rupert and when they tried to pick him up, he managed to get out of his collar and ran off, with the other dog chasing behind him.
“We looked around the neighbourhood and had some friends help us look around and then we heard the siren and the fire engines coming, so we saw on social media that they were down at the river so we went down and watched the firefighters do their job and got him out and we’re grateful for their help,” said Jamie.
Riverview Fire and Rescue Chief Robin True said firefighters from Riverview, Moncton and Dieppe all responded to a call of a dog possibly in the Petitcodiac River around noon.
When firefighters arrived, True said they found a dog on the mud flats next to the river.
Firefighters from Moncton and Dieppe were no longer needed, but eight firefighters from Riverview helped rescue Rupert.
“We just had two firefighters that walked out onto the mud flats and were able to corral the dog back to shore,” said True. “He was pretty stressed at the time of the incident so they were able to just kind of get out and kind of corral him and shoo him back to shore.”
Once Rupert recognized his owners, True said he was happy and made his way out of the mud and into Jamie’s arms.
“The firemen were phenomenal,” said Tracy on Wednesday. “I just want to thank you guys for everything you’ve done. You brought back our Rupert. Thank you.”
The firefighters weren’t close to any swift waters, but True said there was still a degree of risk involved.
“The Petitcodiac River, which was around 300 metres away, was moving very fast at the time. Any time we’re down along the Petitcodiac we have to respect at certain times of the day it’s very much a swift water environment, which means we have to be very careful,” said True.
“If anybody ends up in the water it’s definitely a challenging incident.”
Tracy said her husband Jamie recently lost his father, so it’s been an emotional time for the couple.
When they couldn’t find Rupert, they were terrified.
“You don’t realize what an animal does to your heart, but recently losing a father-in-law, it really helped to get him back,” said Tracy.
The couple is also very grateful to their friends Pat Fox and Kelli Morton, who helped in the search, and to Shauna Price, a woman they don’t know.
Tracy said Price pulled over to try and get Rupert before he ran into the mud.
Price then called 911.
While it was a low-risk rescue, True said any time they can help save someone’s pet is a good day.
“A lot of our firefighters are dog owners as well, so we have a lot of empathy certainly for owners of pets,” said True. “Luckily in this case it was a fairly low-risk adventure for us and we were able to help them out.”
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