Firefighters rescued an elderly dog Wednesday morning, Jan. 6, after it was spotted trapped on a small island in the South Santiam River behind Mountain Shadows mobile home park.
The dog, a border collie cross named Maggie, is owned by Paul and Carol Le-Croy, who live next to the river in the park. She disappeared Monday after Paul Le-Croy left his car door open to carry some groceries to the house, he said. Maggie, who is about 12 years old, according to LeCroy, is a companion dog for Carol Le-Croy, who suffered a stroke six years ago.
He said she’s gotten out before but “usually she comes right back. This time she didn’t. The whole neighborhood was looking for her.”
LeCroy’s neighbor, Billy White, spotted the dog Wednesday morning on a small brush island in the middle of the river,
surrounded by rushing water. White said he had scanned the riverbank and the island on Tuesday, with no success, but decided to give it another shot Wednesday after noticing that his dachshund, Missy, was acting “real weird” and howling on his back porch.
“I walked down there and heard her yipping,” he said of Maggie.
LeCroy and White said the river rose a couple of feet on Tuesday night and that apparently flushed Maggie out from wherever she was on the island. LeCroy said Maggie usually has no interest in getting near the river, and that she apparently had fallen over the sheer cliff while going after some bones that a neighbor had chucked over a fence.
“In summer, when I fish there once in a while, she absolutely won’t go over that embankment,” he said.
After getting a call for help just before 10 a.m. Wednesday, firefighters launched their rescue boat and motored to the island, where firefighter Jared Richey climbed ashore and rescued the dog, who appeared to be stuck in a puddle of water and was yelping.
She was taken to Northside Park where her owners were waiting with a blanket and bundled her into a truck for the ride home.
Resident manager Bill Hammond said the park’s river access is normally closed for the winter but he had allowed LeCroy and Maggie to get through the gate that leads to the water. He said Friday the gate is now locked for the remainder of the winter.
LeCroy said Friday that Maggie was pretty much back to normal.
“She laid around for a couple of days, but last night she jumped on the bed, so I knew she was OK,” he said. “We’re extremely thankful for everyone who came out and helped get her home. We were going to get her one way or another, but the fire department was very generous in helping get her out of there.
“She’s just kind of a member of the neighborhood here. She’s just a wonderful, wonderful pet.”