UPS driver dives into freezing water to save drowning dog, calls it the highlight of his career
Heroes come in many shapes and sizes. In Bozeman, Montana, they come in the form of a UPS driver named Ryan Arens. Arens just happened to be in the right place at the right time, helping to save a drowning dog while on his route.
Just a normal day on the job
Though busy, the day seemed normal enough as he made his daily rounds. At some point, he heard a cry for help from a nearby pond. At first, he couldn’t see anything, but as he circled, he saw something in the middle of the frozen water.
“It was like a kind of cry for help,” Arens told The Dodo, “but I couldn’t really see what was going on. I got out of my truck, and then I saw a dog in the pond. Then I saw she was clinging to the ice.”
It was at this point that Arens heard the sound again and realized that it was the dog crying for help.
A dog in trouble
Being in the 30s, thin ice had formed on the pond. As a dog lover, Arens knew that no dog in its right mind would be in the water on such a cold day. Running over, Arens saw that a few people had gathered. One man had even taken the initiative and was out in a paddleboat attempting to rescue the dog.
“My heart was thumping,” Arens said. “I got a little scared and nervous knowing that I was probably going to do something stupid.”
Arens makes a daring rescue
“I stripped down to my boxer briefs, took off my uniform and my hat and everything, and left my socks on knowing how sharp ice can be,” he said as he described the tense scene.
Jumping in the boat, he used the craft to try and distribute his weight as he made his way slowly across the ice in an attempt to reach the dog.
Pulling the dog from the jaws of death
Arens described the scene as he approached the dog in the water, “I could see through the ice now because it was really thin, and I could see three-quarters of the dog’s body was underwater — just her head was up and barely out of the water.”
Getting out of the boat, he attempted to reach the dog while holding onto the boat with one hand. As he balanced on the ice, he could just imagine what would happen next.
“My biggest fear was falling through the ice and not being able to get out,” he said and sure enough he was correct in his assumption as the ice broke and he fell through. “I went down, and at that point, I just swam out to the dog and grabbed her collar — thank God she had a collar on — and swam back to the ice,” he continued.
Making it back to the boat, Arens put the dog inside and slid it to the shore, where one of the people gathered gave him a warm blanket to wrap up in. The neighbors, meanwhile, rushed the dog to a nearby house to recover. Soon, the dog’s owner arrived, glad that she was okay.
All in a day’s work
Arens, still in his boxers, slipped out the back to put on a dry uniform and went about his day. It wasn’t until the next day that he met the dog’s owner who thanked him for what he had done. As a dog lover, Arens did not hesitate when asked if he would do it again.
“I would do it again in a heartbeat,” he said. “I love animals.”
Check out this video with more on Arens’ epic rescue of a dog in need.
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