The geese were just too tempting. After seeing a savory-looking gaggle on her morning walk, Pearl, a black Labrador, chased after them onto Sloan’s Lake and ended up in cold – very cold- water Tuesday.
Hearing her dog’s cries as Pearl broke through thin ice and sank into 32-degree water, Wanda Padilla of Denver ran out to try to save her.
“I thought maybe I could throw a rope,” Padilla said.
Padilla realized the ice couldn’t hold her, so she scrambled back to safety and borrowed a passer-by’s cellphone to call the Fire Department.
“The man who walked out had a helmet on and flippers, and Pearl was afraid of him because he looked like a frog man,” Padilla said. But Pearl warmed up to the frog man after the ice shelf that had supported her gave way.
“She growled at me a little bit,” said Tony Padilla (no relation to Wanda Padilla), Pearl’s rescuer and a technician with the Denver Fire Department Dive Team. “But once I grabbed her, I could feel the dog relax.”
Pearl’s rescue was caught on video and broadcast nationwide. This morning, Pearl and both Padillas appeared on the Today Show with Ann Curry, who called firefighter Padilla “a rock star” for his heroic work saving Pearl.
The Denver Fire Department carries out about 30 rescues a year from icy waters, said Lt. Phil Champagne, department spokesman.
Wanda Padilla said she would return to her walking routine and cautioned other dog owners to “keep dogs away from geese.”
