A puppy named Dory is on the road to recovery after a man saved her from being locked in a cage floating over a freezing lake in Illinois over the weekend.
Middle school science teacher Bryant Fritz was on his way to go fishing at a lake in Champaign, Illinois, when he noticed a small black and white puppy nearly submerged in a cage in the water.
“It was about 3 p.m. when I saw the dog in the lake,” Fritz told the Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette. “Part of the crate was sticking out of the water. The puppy’s head was still above water, but the rest of her body was submerged.”
Fritz, looking to see if anyone else was around, took his sweater off and jumped into the frigid waters to save the puppy.
“I thought about calling someone but I didn’t think she had an extra five or 10 minutes,” he told CNN. “I just didn’t know.”
Fritz then put the puppy in his car, wrapped her in a blanket, and took her to the University of Illinois Veterinary Teaching Hospital for treatment.
A spokesperson for the veterinary hospital said the puppy arrived at the facility so cold with hypothermia that thermometers could not get an accurate reading on her temperature.
It also took about three hours of warming methods to get the puppy’s temperature to normal levels.
“She also needed care for wounds that do not appear to be related to being in the lake,” the hospital said.
Fritz is keeping a close watch on his new friend in the hopes that he will be able to adopt her once Champaign County Animal Control takes custody of her on Monday, WCIA reported.
“We are the first ones on the list,” he said.