Rescue at the Bend

Yesterday Amanda and I took her two dogs, Daisy and Charelotte, pure-bred English cocker spaniels, to Three Mile Bend. Three Mile Bend is this wonderful recreation area just on the outskirts of Red Deer along the Red Deer River that has kilometres of trails and is off-leash for dogs. As you can imagine, being off-leash, it's like Disneyland for dogs. They all greet and sniff and roll around and have a grand time. We'd been walking for close to an hour and were just finishing our walk when we stopped to see where Charelotte was. The dogs usually scamper off for a few minutes, then pop back out of the bushes and onto the trail to check in. Daisy was with us but Charelotte was nowhere to be found or seen. Usually she's right on Daisy's heels because Charelotte's still basically a puppy (1 1/2 years) and Daisy's 9. But, no, no Charelotte. We're looking, Amanda's calling, and then we see this young guy running along the banks of the Red Deer River. We go over, and there's little Charelotte's head and shoulders sticking out of the freezing Red Deer River, clinging to the ice. Now, the Red Deer River isn't just some little creek ~ it flows into Saskatchewan, and it moves. Fast. So this good samaritan goes into the river, up to his thighs, to rescue little Charelotte. The poor thing comes out shivering, the water on her body turning icy, and into Amanda's arms. I don't even like to think about it, but if little Charelotte wouldn't have held herself up by clinging to the ice, well, you know what easily could have happened. Thank goodness this guy was a real dog lover (as most people out there are) and didn't hesitate to save Charelotte. I think next time, we'll stick to the part of the Bend that isn't near the water. And next time, I'll bring my camera. As I was saying to Amanda minutes before this happened, "I should have brought my camera. It's so beautiful here, it's blog-worthy." Not that I would have snapped pictures of Charelotte's struggle for survival, but sometimes there's moose and deer there and the scenery is fabulous. But we could handle a little less excitement!