Lancaster County deputy recalls rescue of dog ‘fighting for her life’ in frozen pond

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – A local dog is safe and sound after being rescued last week by a Lancaster County deputy.

Angela Paolini, who lives near 98th Street and Pioneers Boulevard, said her dog, Bear, had run out onto their pond and fallen through the ice.

Paolini crawled out onto the ice, knowing it would probably break. And it did.

“I don’t know what I was thinking because I’m there in the water, and I started struggling to get back to shore,” she said. “The whole time I was thinking, ‘Not today. I’m not dying today. It’s not happening. My husband will kill me if I die.'”

Paolini said her husband helped her get out of the water and called 911.  Deputy John Brady arrived shortly after.

“Probably one of the more difficult things to watch, for sure, was to watch Bear in the middle of that pond clearly fighting for her life,” Brady said. “It was very, very difficult to watch and to listen to her. She’d go under the water and come back up, so you knew she still had some fight in her.”

First responders on the scene searched the neighborhood for some kind of flotation device and found a kayak.

Brady slowly pushed the kayak onto the ice.

The temperature that day was about 40 degrees, which he said made it difficult to determine how strong the ice was.

Eventually, Brady dropped into the water, which was deep enough to go over his head.

“You knew at some point in time, you were going to go in; it’s just the way it was,” he said. “You just didn’t know when it was going to happen.”

When he reached Bear, he lifted her up into the kayak.

“She had a wonderful look on her face when I got to her, for sure, ’cause I think she was so tired,” he said.

Officials said Bear had been in the water for about a half-hour.

Brady, a Navy veteran, said his training prepared him for the rescue.

“Everything works out for a reason, I think,” he said. “And that day it certainly did.”

Paolini said Bear was checked out afterward and is doing OK.

From now on, she’ll always be kept on a leash when the ice is melting.