Chris MacRitchie didn't hesitate after finding his dog floating on the icy Vermont River.
He jumped into the frigid water, walked over to the dog and gently pulled it to shore, where his wife put a sweatshirt on the dog.
The dramatic rescue in Berlin on Friday afternoon was captured on video and shared by his son. Widely on social media.
MacRitchie's son first spotted the dog while going through the drive-thru at a nearby Dunkin Donuts.
When he arrived at the Winooski River levee, the father of two felt he had no choice but to save the dog.
“It was like a decision-making moment that probably everyone goes through in their life,” MacRitchie said. “I have two dogs myself, so I felt I had an obligation to at least try to get this dog out of the river. I hope that if there were dogs in the area, someone would do it for me.” Masu.”
The video shows MacRitchie, wearing a T-shirt, sweats and boots, approaching the embankment as the dog struggles to get out.
As he called out to the dog, he heard his wife's voice encouraging him to save the dog.
MacRitchie carefully plows through the ice into the river and can hear gasps as she walks toward her dog on the other side of the frozen tributary.
MacRitchie pulls the dog out of the water and onto the ice embankment.
He passes it on to his wife.
“The only real stress I felt about this game was not being able to get into the cold water. It was the depth. I didn't know if it was 20 feet deep or 2 feet deep.” said MacRitchie. “When I broke through and stood up and was about waist height, I was really relieved. At that moment, in my mind, I was like, 'OK, this isn't that bad.' Yes, it's cold, but I think this is a very doable situation. ”
MacRitchie called the dog's owner, Morgan Serasoli, whose number was on the dog tag.
Serasoli said she had been searching since Thursday for her dog, a 7-year-old mutt named Arizona, who was originally rescued from the side of a road in South Carolina.
She was picking up her daughter from school when MacRitchie called her and said he had pulled a drowning dog out of the river.
“I started crying and I said to him, 'Oh my God, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you. Please let me make a U-turn, I’ll be right back,” she said while sitting next to Arizona during the interview. She said the dog has almost recovered.
After being reunited with her dog, Serasoli said she watched the video and cried again as she watched MacRitchie's rescue and Arizona's struggle in the water.
“It's brave, it's selfless, it's admirable. I think that's all we were meant to be on this earth for,” she said of the rescue. “Sometimes I feel like that's a rarity these days.”
