posted January 26, 2012 12:56 AM            

They say every dog has his day. On Wednesday, Buddy had a darn lucky one.

Police, firefighters, one concerned citizen and her dogs each played a part in saving the black Labrador that fell through the ice on a pond in Stroud Township a little after midnight.

In rescuing Buddy, Stroud Area Regional Police officers manned a rowboat, smashed up large quantities of ice and removed him from where he had been treading water.

Buddy was taken to a local veterinary office, treated and released to his owners.

Dogs 'going crazy'
Police and witnesses gave the following account:

At around 12:30 a.m., Susan Im, who lives on Shelbrooke Drive, said her Yorkshire terrier, Tank, started barking nonstop for some reason.

"He was going crazy," she said. In addition, her own Labrador, Watson, also started acting rambunctiously, barking and pacing around her living room.

"Something was definitely wrong," Im said.

So Im went outside. She heard a noise from the pond behind her home.

"What it sounded like was heavy breathing. And then at times like a howl," she said.

With a flashlight in hand, Im walked closer to the pond in the darkness and pointed the light in the direction of the sound.

Treading water
At first she didn't see anything. Then she did.

"What I saw was really freaky, just these two eyes in the water, reflecting orange from the light of my flashlight."

Im called police.

Buddy, 12, was submerged in the middle of the lake, furiously treading water about 25 feet from the shore.

"I just kept talking to him," Im said. "I would go away for a second and he would yelp, so I came back and kept talking to him. "» I've never felt so powerless."

When SARP officers Ralph Overpeck and Brian Gaita arrived, they knew they had to act quickly, said Lt. Brian Kimmins.

The officers threw a neighbor's rowboat in the pond. But the pond was mostly frozen, so they took an oar and smashed up the ice around the boat.

By the time the officers broke up the ice, they were exhausted, Kimmins said. That's when two other officers — Cpl. Thomas Lemund and Mike Petruzzi — took over.

They got into the boat and rowed out to Buddy and brought him in.

Im, meanwhile, had prepared warm blankets for the officers, firefighters and Buddy, who was suffering slightly from exposure.

"It was such a great scene after Buddy was rescued," said Im, who added that once emergency service personnel saw that Buddy was wearing a tag, "He was no longer just a dog. He was 'Buddy,' and everyone was saying, 'You're going to be fine, 'Buddy.'"

Lethargic but OK
So how did Buddy get out there?

"He was out going to the bathroom and he just took off. It was crazy. He had to have seen a deer," said Stacey Stricklin, Buddy's owner.

Stricklin, 29, who lives near the pond, said she was out walking Buddy, took her eyes off him for a moment, and he just took off.

She said that Buddy has done that before, but nothing like this every happened. She said that she and her fiancé, Sandro Rodrigues, searched for hours to no avail.

Buddy, after being rescued, received fluids and other care from Creature Comforts veterinary hospital in Saylorsburg.

He was a little lethargic Wednesday but otherwise was doing well.

"I'm just so relieved and so thankful that everyone came together and saved my baby," Stricklin said.

posted January 28, 2012 02:37 AM            

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Remember, love can conquer the influences of the planets....It can even eliminate karma.

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