8 February 2010

Dog drifts 75 miles on ice flow into Baltic Sea

January 28th, 2010WARSAW, Poland – A frightened, shivering dog was rescued after floating at least 75 miles (120 kilometers) on an ice floe down Poland's Vistula River and into the Baltic Sea.The dog's frozen odyssey came as Poland suffers through a winter cold snap, with temperatures dipping to below minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 20 Celsius).The thick-furred male dog was found adrift Monday 15 miles (24 kilometers) out in the Baltic Sea by the crew of the Baltica, a Polish ship of ocean scientists carrying out research. Researcher Natalia Drgas said the rescue was difficult and at one point it seemed the dog had drowned.  "It was really a tough struggle. It kept slipping into the water and crawling back on top of the ice. At one point it vanished underwater, under the ship and we thought it was the end, but it emerged again and crawled on an ice sheet," Drgas said.At that point, the crew lowered a pontoon down to the water and a crew member managed to grab the dog by the scruff of his neck and pull him to safety. Too weak to shake off the frigid water, Baltic was dried and wrapped in blankets. After he warmed up, he was massaged, fed and soon got on his feet to seek company, Drgas said. A firefighter in Grudziadz, on the Vistula river 60 miles (100 kilometers) inland from the Bay of Gdansk, told The Associated Press the dog was spotted Saturday floating on ice through the city. Firefighters tried to save him but could not approach the dog due to shifting ice sheets, said the office.Wosachlo said the research team is prepared to adopt Baltic if his original owner is never found.

6 comments:

  1. poor baby... must have been a terrorizing experience! Cold water... brrrrrrr I cant even imagine.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh nooo, poor guy! I am so glad they got him. That kind of frigid cold can damage a dogs pads on his paws. It sounds like they got him just in time. I'd adopt him in a heartbeat!

    ReplyDelete
  3. tail-wagging phewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!

    and, one lil damn..... cuz i'd read your blog via email and before coming to your page did a tube-search... found a vid! yay! ... came here already to cut n' paste.... but.... you'd already done did so.... damn! (you're getting good on the youtube groove... kudos)

    oh, and another damn.. to those four people who've claimed him yet seemingly aren't the rightful owners... i mean, if they said they're not the owner but just would love to adopt him, fine.. no prob.. but to b.s. the situation, hell, maybe they should be put out to sea on an ice flow and see if the dog then adopts them...

    yeah, i know.. a bit harsh.. but still, i don't like the scam bidness....

    okay.. that woofer'll find a good/warm/loving home, i'm thinking with the research team...

    great post... woof a woof a woof!!!...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Awwww that just made me cry....first with sadness then with happiness that there are still some wonderful caring people in the world. The poor doggy, he must've been so frightened. I do hope they adopt him and call him Baltic...it would be fitting.

    ReplyDelete