For the record, Rosie, a year and a half old Aussie Shepherd dog, is fine after going for a ride on the waves.
She was reported to be pretty calm during and after she tried doggie surfing on the outgoing tide from Pemaquid Beach into the mighty North Atlantic.
But her owners, Sandy Redemske and Rob Macks, were not calm – at all.
“Unbelievable. It happened so quickly,” Redemske said.
It started as a winter walk on the beach Saturday for the Jefferson couple.
“We were playing with her. Asking her to come back and forth to us,” she explained.
Then the pup noticed a 4 by 8-foot foot sheet of Styrofoam insulation material floating on the shore. Rosie jumped on it and launched the blue craft onto the black sea.
Rosie just sat in the middle and didn’t move.
“She looked calm and looked around,” said Redemske.
At first the couple tried to call the pup to shore. “She is not a water dog and does not like to get wet,” she said.
As she floated with the tide, the couple quit calling her for fear she might get anxious.
Redemske said she ran up the beach into the park and flagged down a motorist driving by. Her husband took photos later posted on You Tube.
“He had a German Shepherd in his car so we knew he would understand when I told him I needed to use his cell phone, to call 911,” she said.
Ron Pendleton, the chief of the Bristol Fire Dept., said he and three of his volunteers were nearby on a medical call when dispatchers notified them of a wayward dog floating off the beach.
“We were not far away, so we grabbed the inflatable and hustled it down to the beach. A sprint back to the truck brought a small motor and air bottles to pump up the boat and two firefighters set off after Rosie, who was more than 100-feet off shore.
“It was impressive, how well trained and well equipped they were,” Redemske said.
“My guys tried to get the dog to jump into the inflatable, but she just growled at them, so they pushed the Styrofoam to the beach and she jumped off,” Pendleton said.
“They pushed her through some ice and as soon as she got to shore, she ran to me,” Redemske said.
“We can’t thank the fire department enough. They were great,” she said.
Pendleton and the Bristol fire volunteers are frequently called to rescue sightseers who are swept off the rocks at Pemaquid Point. It is not uncommon for unthinking tourists to lose their lives.
This time, it was a rescue operation and a successful one, too.
“My guys treated it as a training exercise. We got there pretty quickly, got the boat inflated and got it in the water. It was something,” said Pendleton.
