A heroic dog tale near Burns Lake

On the morning of April 17 on Decker Lake, a dog saved the life of another dog when the two animals fell through the ice.

“It occurred on the south side of Decker Lake, below the big hay fields near the narrows. We live on Murphy Road and we were watching the swans and geese in the open patch of water across the lake from where we live. We often watch them with our binoculars although it was all quite visible with the naked eye,” said Paulette McKenzie, who witnessed the incident.

“We saw the geese and swans suddenly take off and we saw two black labs, one adult and one that looked like a medium sized pup, running towards them. They actually slid into the water between the ice and the shore,” she continued.

McKenzie, after seeing the dogs fall in, began posting on the Burns Lake Lost and Found Pets Facebook page to urgently get the word out.

READ MORE: Who let the dogs out in Burns Lake?

“Eventually the smaller dog got back onto the ice. The larger dog was not able to get back onto the ice. It seemed after awhile that the larger dog was giving up. The smaller dog would not leave his pal and ran around trying to help. Eventually the smaller dog found his way to shore where the shore was closer. From there the smaller dog ran back to his friend, jumped into the water and showed the bigger dog the way out. From there I saw them run south (towards town) and lost track of them,” said McKenzie.

RCMP were called about the incident, but were shortly called off when both of the dogs made it safely to land. Both the dogs have been returned to their owners. The community really came together to help in any way they could, as the Facebook thread that McKenzie started garnered dozens of posts with people communicating about what authorities to reach out too, and providing updates on what the dogs were doing.

“My understanding was that the dogs crossed back across the lake and wound up on Eckland Drive, and their owners were called from there and they came and rescued them from there. A few people who lived along the lake were keeping their eyes peeled,” said Neely Schienbein, administrator of the Burns Lake Lost and Found Pets Facebook page.