Where are my dogs? In the Willowemoc!

By Rachel Zuckerman | Manor Ink

Has your pet ever been in a tragic accident? Well, my idiotic dogs have, because of me. You might be wondering why I would let such a thing happen, but let me tell you the crazy story about how my dogs – well, one of them – almost drowned.

It was a normal day like any other. When I came home after school, I found the front door was locked. So I went through the gate of the fence surrounding the yard and into the house where my dogs greeted me. After a while, they wanted to go out into the backyard and I let them, little knowing that things were about to happen.

Later, my little brother came home with his caretaker. I didn’t think about it at first, but I didn’t hear the dogs barking when Mikey came home. My dad then asked, “Rachel, where are the dogs?” I said that they were in the backyard. He told me to check and when I did – dogs nowhere to be seen. “Oh my gosh! I forgot to close the gate!” He told me to meet him outside and we’d go look for them.

In the car, dad told me that his friend’s son looked out the window while they were driving by and saw our dogs across the Willowemoc Creek. We drove slowly looking for them, and finally I saw them – Snoopy, our big one, standing on the ice, and our little one, Woodstock (their names are from “Peanuts”), pawing the ice and half submerged into the river.

We parked at a place that was closest to the dogs from our side of the river. My dad called his friend, and then went with him across the Catskill Fly Fishing Center & Museum bridge and hiked up to where the dogs were. My dad also called the fire department to make sure that they got Woodstock out of the river safely. Imagine this, me and dad’s friend’s daughter on the edge of a little ledge that then dropped down to the river, my dad and his friend on the other side trying to get Woody (his nickname) back on shore, Snoopy walking to and from my dad and the ice, trying to help Woody, and the fire department on the way to help.

Now, in the middle of all this, I’m crying because, well, I consider my dogs my best friends and I love them so much, so who wouldn’t cry? The fire department came after a while, but without the truck with the right equipment to get Woody out. Dad’s friend’s wife came to make sure everything was OK with her daughter and me. It was also freezing out, so that didn’t help.

A little while later, more people from the fire department came, and some of them went to the place across the river where the dogs were. We had to move from where we were because Woody was trying to swim across the creek to us, which was not possible. So we found a place where he couldn’t see us. That was worrying because I couldn’t see what was happening and could only hear Woody’s cries and the firefighter’s shouts. After another long while, firefighters who had the right equipment came, but then Snoopy went out on the ice, tried to grab Woody by the scruff to lift him up, but slipped and fell into the water. Snoopy simply swam back safely and, after all the craziness and calling the fire department, Woody got off the ice, too, and just swam back to shore after Snoopy. That’s it. After all that! If you ask me, I think he’s a drama queen.

Afterward, my dad’s friend came with his four-wheeler, one of those side-by-sides. My dad was on the back with Snoopy, which was the funniest thing, and poor Woody in the passenger’s seat. We immediately got both of them wrapped in towels next to the fire. My dad told me that not only the Manor fire department came, but also crews from Liberty and Roscoe, since it was considered an ice-rescue. After all that drama, the dogs are acting like nothing happened, and they are fine. Phew!