Volunteers Rescue A Dog From Icy Lake Waters

By Andrew Gorosko

Ginger McKee was looking out the window of her Lake Road home about sunset Monday, using binoculars to search for the hawks that ply the waters of Lake Lillinonah hunting for food.

Suddenly, Mrs McKee saw an object thrashing about in the frigid water, struggling to get out of the lake and onto the nearby spring ice, which is now breaking up in the lake.

Initially she thought it was muskrat. But a closer look revealed it to be a dog — a collie.

Mrs McKee had her son, Jeffrey, 9, go down the steep slope to the lakeshore to try to keep the animal calm. She also dialed 911 to summon help.

Minutes later, dozens of rescuers arrived in the form of Newtown Hook and Ladder, Hawleyville, and Sandy Hook firefighters, the Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps, plus the Newtown Underwater Search and Rescue unit.

Firefighters positioned themselves on a dock at the lakeshore. Several rescuers clad in bulky red drysuits made their way out to the struggling animal, several hundred yards from shore, near the neck of land where Pond Brook Cove meets Lake Lillinonah.

After some delicate work at dusk, rescuers helped the dog up onto the ice, but it wandered off, prompting the men to follow it and eventually catch it.

Firefighter Milt Adams slowly carried the wet, confused collie back to shore, where it was wrapped in blankets and then carried up the Alpine hillside to the McKees’ yard.

Amid the commotion, Chris Bailey, a next-door neighbor of the McKees, saw from the street that the rescued animal was hers. Running down the steep driveway she embraced Loni, the female, four-year-old blue merle collie.

Ms Bailey expressed her gratitude to the rescuers.

Loni, who has a pen at Bailey residence, had somehow gotten loose and wandered out onto the icy lake, falling through the ice into the 100-foot-deep waters.

“I felt a lot of empathy for the poor dog in the water… I decided I’m calling 911,” Mrs McKee said.

“I was extremely impressed with the fire department… truly impressed with the teamwork. It was an impressive sight to see,” she said.