Misadventure ends in heartwarming tale

SAGLE — A dog’s chilly misadventures on thin ice could have ended badly if not for the timely intervention of Sagle firefighters.

Nampa residents Kim Read and Dene Kirk spared no praise for Rob Goodyear, Monty Aarestad, Josh Cpalkki, Reeny Hansen, Mark Fields, Devon Colby, Mike Kazar and Jeff Littlefield of the Sagle Fire Department after they rescued their border collie-golden retriever mix Otis from a nearly hour-long swim in icy water Monday, Jan. 24. 

“Thanks to the fast and wonderful efforts of all of these people, our faithful friend, Otis, is doing well back home in Nampa,” Reader wrote in an e-mail. “We cannot express our gratitude enough.”

On that eventful evening, Reader was in Spokane taking a test in her efforts to become a 911 operator. She left Otis in the hands of friends Kevin and Gayl Downard.

Leaving Otis for a moment with his own dogs, Kevin Downard went to throw hay to his horses. When he returned, Otis was nowhere to be found.

A quick search around the house yielded no results. Downard jumped into his truck to search for the missing pet. He knew Reader loved the dog and after surviving a battle with breast cancer, the loss of a beloved pet would be heartbreaking for his friend.

“She’d been through enough hard times already, so I was very panicked to find that dog,” Downard said.

After driving around the area, Downard finally spotted the dog walking on West Dufort Road toward Priest River. He pulled up alongside Otis, opened the door and called for him to come inside.

“He’s usually a pretty friendly dog, so I thought he’d just jump inside,” Downard said. “He looked at me like I was the devil himself or something and ran off.”

Downard followed the dog to the typically shallow waters of Cocolalla Slough and once again tried to call the dog over. Instead Otis ran onto the ice. After running about 120 yards on the frozen surface, the ice broke under his weight and plunged him into the freezing water.

In response, Downard followed the animal onto the ice.

“I knew I would break through, but the water usually only comes up to your waist at its deepest point,” he said.

When Downard did break through the ice, he fell up to his armpits in chilling water. He discovered later that the water level was higher due to a dam in the river.

After scrambling back onto the ice and returning to shore, Downard considered forcing a path to the dog in a canoe. With time pressing, however, he called his wife and asked her to contact the fire department.

“I’d dumped my cell phone two times at that point, so I was lucky it was still working,” he said.

 A half hour later, the firefighters arrived. By that point, Otis had been in the water for 45 or 50 minutes. Once Fry Creek Animal Hospital had been notified about the situation, firefighter Monty Aarestad jumped into a water with a rope around his waist. After forcing his way through the ice and securing Otis, the other firefighters and Downard began pulling him back to the shore.

“We pulled that rope until he’d collected so much snow behind him that we couldn’t move it anymore,” Downard said.

The firefighters rushed Otis to the animal hospital, warming him along the way. Thanks to their efforts, the dog made a full and speedy recovery without any complications. Sagle Fire official Rob Goodyear even visited him later in the hospital.

Upon returning from her Spokane trip, Reader paid a visit to the fire department and thanked everyone personally.

“That dog is very special to me,” she said. “I’m so glad everyone came through for us. We were so relieved he was fine.”