Bella and the drink

About a week ago, Bella went into the drink. We were out walking in the woods by home when I decided to cross the creek which had been frozen solid a few days earlier to get to a spot where I could let her roam off-leash. It turned out the creek was completely melted, but only about 6 feet wide. I kicked the snow to find a sturdy take-off spot and jumped across and as I landed I heard a big "Spa-loooosh!"

I turned around to see Bella in the water, which was about 2 feet deep. She tried to scramble out on the side I was on, but the bank was about 2 feet high and she couldn't make it. She tried the other side and couldn't make it out there either. So she came back to my side and clung to the bank, staring up at me as if to say "you're going to solve this, right?" It was all pretty pathetic, and definitely satisfied my love of seeing animals do uncoordinated things.

At first, I couldn't get a good angle to lift her out, so she had to wait for a couple minutes while I kicked away at the snow and ice to get as low as I could. Eventually I had to just haul on her collar and drag her up the bank. She thanked me by moving 3 inches away from me before shaking ice-cold muddy creek water on me. Amazingly, she never looked cold when she was in the water or out. And once rescued she was excited to out on a walk! I kind of wish I'd gotten a picture of her in the creek, but I think its good that I didn't delay getting her out. Still she looks kind of pathetic in these pictures, taken about a minute after getting back onto dry land.