Tarazet

August 17, 2004

Dog Overboard

A man's dog jumped off a ferry and needless to say, the man jumped off to rescue him. Alls well that ends well. From Yahoo-AP:


It all started when the ferry Hyak had engine trouble and stopped on the way from Seattle to Bremerton. Fisher and Ruben got out of their car to see what was going on and while Fisher was talking to some other dog owners, Ruben disappeared.

"A guy said, 'Your dog just jumped overboard!'" Fisher told The (Bremerton) Sun.

Ruben apparently went overboard as the ferry was starting up again. Fisher said he ran to the back of the boat, saw someone point to a dog in the water, then grabbed a life buoy, jumped in and started swimming.

Once in the water, he could no longer see Ruben.

"It was really hard to see in those big waves," he said Saturday in an interview with KIRO Television.

The ferry stopped, backed up and sent out a life boat to rescue both Fisher and Ruben.

"I was expecting to be in trouble ... but they totally understood that I had to get my dog," he said.

Fisher said the ferry crew were "nothing but nice the whole time," although they advised him to keep his dog on a leash next time.

"We obviously do not encourage people to jump into the water from the ferry," said Patricia Patterson, spokeswoman for Washington State Ferries. "But I understand the reaction. If it were my dog, I likely would have done the same thing."


I'm glad the ferry crew was understanding. In a lot of states where laws are enforced without any sense of proportion there would probably have been a crowd of cops waiting on shore to arrest the poor guy.

Posted by Jeff Soyer at August 17, 2004 10:19 AM
Comments
Note: Comments close down after 7 days.