GEORGETOWN TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A dog is lucky to be alive after falling through thin ice on Cedar Lake East Monday afternoon.
“Those times, training kicks in,” said Jeremy Vanden Heuvel. “A life is a life. If it’s a dog or a human, we’re thinking the same mode.”
Shortly after the dog, a black lab named Hazel, started struggling to stay afloat, first responders arrived, including Vanden Heuvel and other members of the Georgetown Township Dive Rescue team.
Springing into action, Vanden Heuvel put on a gumby suit and waded into the water, with Hazel clinging to a fracturing ice shelf, 20-30 feet offshore.
"I could tell that she was in a bad way," Vanden Heuvel said.
Wrapping his arms around the dog, Vanden Heuvel was pulled back onto dry, snowy land by other members of the township's fire department. of which the dive rescue team is a part. Hazel collapsed onto the ground, tired and cold.
"She was probably in a significant crisis," Vanden Heuvel said, admitting that if the dive team had arrived minutes later, there may have been a different outcome.
"If there's any hero in the bunch here, it's Hazel, who hung on for a really long time," Vanden Heuvel said. "I happened to be at the tip of the spear on this one, but there's a whole crew around me that made that a reality.”
The township says Hazel was reunited with her owner and is doing well.
