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Kayaker Rescued a Wounded Dog Who Swam a Mile Offshore after Fleeing From a Fatal Crash.

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9 years ago

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May 20, 2015 08:21pm EDT

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Ann Moises

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“I feel lucky that I was there fishing, because there was no place for him to go and I don’t know if he could have made it much further.”- Rory O’Connor

Talk about being in the right place at the right time…Rory O’Connor, who went to Sarasota, Florida to visit his family, decided to go fishing in the Gulf of Mexico that Saturday. He was on his kayak a few miles seaward when he noticed a figure swimming towards him from behind. He turned his head and waited until he could clearly see what it was…a dog!

O’Connor was stunned at the sight of the brown pup who seemed to have come to ask for his help. He pulled the shivering dog out of the water and noticed that it was badly hurt. The dog, who was later identified as Barney, a Vizsla, had bleeding wounds and it seemed terrified. It crouched precariously in the tiny space behind his rescuer.

The kind man kayaked back towards the shore, stopping every once in a while to ask others if they owned the dog. When they reached the shore, Barney didn’t even want to move. Whether due to exhaustion or trauma, Barney’s legs shook as O’Connor tried to summon him out of the kayak.

O’Connor’s sister was just a few hundred yards away so he called her and they took Barney to a vet, where he was identified through his ID chip.

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Apparently, Barney was out jogging with his 53-year-old master, Donna Chen, when they were hit by a drunk driver at a sidewalk in Siesta Key. Petrified by the incident, Barney ran away and jumped into the water where he swam about a mile offshore. Donna Chen did not survive the accident.

Barney was reunited with Chen’s bereaved husband and three children and was able to recover from his injuries. The drunk driver, 22-year-old Blake Talman was arrested by the state police and is now serving time in prison.

H/T: SFGlobe, CBS News