He Was Delivering a Package. Then He Heard a Dog 'Going Crazy'

UPS driver in Montana rescues pooch trapped in icy pond
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 18, 2019 10:09 AM CST
He Was Delivering a Package. Then He Heard a Dog 'Going Crazy'
Close call, for both dog and human.   (Getty Images/Denis Torkhov)

UPS doesn't use its "what can brown do for you" slogan anymore, but that didn't stop a Montana driver from answering that call with a heartwarming (but body-freezing) rescue. Ryan Arens tells the Great Falls Tribune that he was delivering packages around the holidays when he heard what sounded like a dog "screaming and crying and going crazy" outside a Bozeman home. Arens was able to track the noises to a nearby icy pond, where an "older man" was out in a rowboat trying to get to a wirehaired pointing griffon that was trapped in the ice. Arens didn't hesitate: "Animals are my weakness." He tore off all his clothes save his boxers and borrowed the man's boat to try to get to the dog himself—but the ice broke, and Arens ended up in the freezing water.

Arens swam toward the dog, which was starting to fall under the surface, grabbed her collar, and got himself and the dog back up onto the ice. He brought the dog back to the older gentleman's house and jumped in the shower with her so they could both warm up; animal control and the sheriff's department arrived to take over, and Arens got back into his truck and finished his delivery shift. A sweet footnote: Arens got an address for the owner of the dog, since IDed as two-and-a-half-year-old Sadie, and headed over with a package he happened to have for that address. "She was freaking out, and when he let her out she ran to me," Arens says. "She must have remembered me. It sure made me feel good." Check out their reunion pic at the Tribune. (Another happy reunion after a New Jersey man's dog was stolen.)

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