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By DEANNA BOYD
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
It was a dirty job, but Suzie was up to it.
A Labrador retriever, Suzie helped rescue a Wise County man stuck in the mud and muck Friday morning on Eagle Mountain Lake, taking him blankets and hot packs to keep him warm.
Chris Cromer, a first lieutenant with the Newark Volunteer Fire Department and proud owner of Suzie, said firefighters were called to the northwest side of the lake near a closed county boat ramp about 9:30 a.m. They found a man in his 20s stranded about 500 feet off the lake's bank, sitting atop a sunken all-terrain vehicle on land that is usually under water when the lake's levels are not so low.
"You get that mud in your clothes, it sucks the heat out of you fast, and hypothermia can set in real fast," Cromer said.
Unable to reach the man by vehicle, Cromer drove to his nearby home and picked up someone that he was certain could.
Suzie, 9, had been purchased by Cromer when she was but a mere pup. After years of obedience and hunting training, Suzie had proved her abilities in competitions, on hunting trips with Cromer and at home.
"If I eat a plate of food in the living room, she takes the plate to my wife in the kitchen," Cromer said. "She'll go get my remote for me for the TV. That's why I'm kind of fat, I guess."
Cromer fashioned a harness and a pack on Suzie, then sent her through the squishy mud to the stranded rider.
"She took him blankets and hot packs from the ambulance to keep his body warm and hands warm," Cromer said.
Suzie would make four more trips, taking rope to attach to the four-wheeler in hopes that firefighters could pull in the man and the ATV.
"We tried to pull him out, but the ropes kept breaking," Cromer said.
Cromer declined to identify the man.
As firefighters used the rope to feed the man a steel chain, Suzie was given a new assignment: Keep the stranded rider's frightened 1 1/2 -year-old son, who had come to the scene with another relative, happy and distracted.
"He was crying. He was scared his dad was out there," Cromer said.
Cromer sat the boy with Suzie atop a second four-wheeler that was parked safely on the bank, and the tears quickly stopped.
"He was petting the dog and happy," Cromer said.
About two hours into the rescue attempt, the rider complained of exhaustion. Firefighters abandoned their plans to rescue him and the vehicle at the same time.
"He was getting a little too cold, and the warm packs were not working so good anymore," Cromer said.
So firefighters attached a backboard to the rope and had the man pull it in.
Lying on it, he was then pulled to the bank using another four-wheeler.
He was treated on the scene by Wise County EMS and cited by a Tarrant County Regional Water District officer for operating a motor vehicle below conservation levels on the lake.
Suzie was rewarded with lots of petting, a stick toss or two, and a special treat by a water district lake officer.
"He had a bunch of dog biscuits he was giving her, so she was really happy with that," Cromer said Friday afternoon in a telephone interview from his home.
"She's laying here on a towel waiting for her bath right now," he said. "She'd kind of wore out."
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/16615148.htm
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
It was a dirty job, but Suzie was up to it.
A Labrador retriever, Suzie helped rescue a Wise County man stuck in the mud and muck Friday morning on Eagle Mountain Lake, taking him blankets and hot packs to keep him warm.
Chris Cromer, a first lieutenant with the Newark Volunteer Fire Department and proud owner of Suzie, said firefighters were called to the northwest side of the lake near a closed county boat ramp about 9:30 a.m. They found a man in his 20s stranded about 500 feet off the lake's bank, sitting atop a sunken all-terrain vehicle on land that is usually under water when the lake's levels are not so low.
"You get that mud in your clothes, it sucks the heat out of you fast, and hypothermia can set in real fast," Cromer said.
Unable to reach the man by vehicle, Cromer drove to his nearby home and picked up someone that he was certain could.
Suzie, 9, had been purchased by Cromer when she was but a mere pup. After years of obedience and hunting training, Suzie had proved her abilities in competitions, on hunting trips with Cromer and at home.
"If I eat a plate of food in the living room, she takes the plate to my wife in the kitchen," Cromer said. "She'll go get my remote for me for the TV. That's why I'm kind of fat, I guess."
Cromer fashioned a harness and a pack on Suzie, then sent her through the squishy mud to the stranded rider.
"She took him blankets and hot packs from the ambulance to keep his body warm and hands warm," Cromer said.
Suzie would make four more trips, taking rope to attach to the four-wheeler in hopes that firefighters could pull in the man and the ATV.
"We tried to pull him out, but the ropes kept breaking," Cromer said.
Cromer declined to identify the man.
As firefighters used the rope to feed the man a steel chain, Suzie was given a new assignment: Keep the stranded rider's frightened 1 1/2 -year-old son, who had come to the scene with another relative, happy and distracted.
"He was crying. He was scared his dad was out there," Cromer said.
Cromer sat the boy with Suzie atop a second four-wheeler that was parked safely on the bank, and the tears quickly stopped.
"He was petting the dog and happy," Cromer said.
About two hours into the rescue attempt, the rider complained of exhaustion. Firefighters abandoned their plans to rescue him and the vehicle at the same time.
"He was getting a little too cold, and the warm packs were not working so good anymore," Cromer said.
So firefighters attached a backboard to the rope and had the man pull it in.
Lying on it, he was then pulled to the bank using another four-wheeler.
He was treated on the scene by Wise County EMS and cited by a Tarrant County Regional Water District officer for operating a motor vehicle below conservation levels on the lake.
Suzie was rewarded with lots of petting, a stick toss or two, and a special treat by a water district lake officer.
"He had a bunch of dog biscuits he was giving her, so she was really happy with that," Cromer said Friday afternoon in a telephone interview from his home.
"She's laying here on a towel waiting for her bath right now," he said. "She'd kind of wore out."
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/16615148.htm
