Last Thursday, 12-year-old Border Collie Bagels joined his owner on a fun trip to Kitsilano Beach in their home city of Vancouver, Canada.
But what started out as just another of their frequent beach days quickly turned into a life-or-death situation.
Owner Joe Markovitch says his active dog has a blast chasing after items on the sandy shores of Kits Beach.
“He loves swimming and he loves catching the stick, the ball,” Markovitch tells Global News.
It was all fun and games for Markovitch and his dog until Bagels went after a 5-foot-long stick — much too large for the old Border Collie to handle — and ran off into the water. Markovitch could see right away Bagels was struggling in the waves and trying his hardest to maneuver the large stick back to shore.
“Because he grabbed it at one end, the current wouldn’t allow him to turn,” Markovitch explains, “so he just kept swimming out to sea.”
Though Markovitch called to Bagels, urging him to drop the cumbersome stick and come back to dry land, Bagels was determined to keep hold of his prize. Markovitch knew if he didn’t act fast, his best friend could drown in the ocean.
Just as Markovitch dove into the surf, paddling towards Bagels, he felt something brush past him in the water — it was another dog, a black Lab, swimming his way to the floundering Border Collie’s aid. Markovitch could hardly believe what he was seeing.
The Labrador Retriever swam to Bagels, grabbed the other end of the stick, and turned the panicked dog toward the shore. Together, the dogs made their way out of the dangerous water.
“They literally walked out of the water with the stick in their mouths,” Markovitch remembers.
A very relieved Markovitch knows that if it wasn’t for the hero Lab’s help, Bagels might not have made it out of the water that day.
“I haven’t seen anything like it before,” he says of the incident. “This other dog maybe even saved Bagels’ life.”
Source: Global News, Huffington Post
