Thursday, May 2, 2024
A Granbury resident recently went viral on social media after his heroic act of saving a dog from an iced-over pond.
Russell Walker of Meander Esates owns three dogs by the names of Boudreaux, Athena and Moto. During the freeze that took place Jan. 15, Walker opened up his back door to let his dogs inside. He noticed Moto was sitting at the fence “peering out over the water.”
Walker then noticed a dog stuck in the middle of the iced-over pond clinging to the edge of the broken ice. Walker made his way to the iced-over pond wearing only a T-shirt and sweatpants and waded nearly waste deep in the frigid waters.
“I knew the ice wasn’t going to support my weight and had reconciled with the fact that I’d be getting wet,” Walker told the HCN. “I knew that I was the only person seeing what was happening and would ultimately be responsible for the outcome.”
Walker ended up breaking the ice which allowed the dog to swim safely to the shore. He added that the dog seemed disoriented and unsure of where he was.
“He had been in the water for a little bit but we’re not sure how long. When I got to him his collar had frozen and he had ice on his whiskers,” Walker said. “Luckily, we were able to get him out and dried off. He was shaking like a leaf.”
After Walker’s girlfriend, Mary, posted the pooch on the neighborhood Facebook page, the owners reached out and notified them it was their dog, Luke. The owners informed Walker that Luke is a bit of a fugitive and has escaped a couple of times. They picked him up and took him back to the comfort of their warm home.
Mary took video footage of the incident and posted it on the social media app TikTok later that evening. The video now has nearly 870,000 views and Walker said he and his girlfriend are still in shock.
The video was featured on the FOX 4 News social media page as well as news channels in the United Kingdom, Australia and Taiwan.
“I am an unapologetic dog person. Team dog, all day,” Walker said.
