A Vermont man is being called a “hero” for jumping into a freezing cold river to rescue a drowning dog and returning her to her worried owner.
Chris MacRitchie was in a Berlin Dunkin’ Donuts drive-thru with his family when he happened to look down the slight hill to see a lone dog struggling to stay afloat in a nearby river, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
A video recorded by his son shows the dramatic moment that MacRitchie walked out across the partially frozen river and plunged into the water:
This man will forever be my Hero! Never told a stranger I love him so many times before. To some this may just be a man rescuing a dog, but to me, it's a man rescuing an extension of my soul! The video of the incredible human who saved my girl! ️️️️
Posted by Morgan Cerasoli on Friday, January 10, 2025
“C’mon, c’mon,” his wife could be heard saying in the background, urging the dog to let her husband bring her to safety.
In just a matter of seconds, MacRitchie was able to cross the river, calmly grab the frantic pet, and bring her back ashore, where his wife draped her in a shirt.
The dog, later identified as “Arizona,” had been lost from her owner, Morgan Cerasoli, for over 24 hours when she was pulled from the frigid waters.
“When I saw that video, it was very evident to me how I would have lost her if it wasn’t for Chris,” Cerasoli told Action News 5.
When MacRitchie called her to say that he found her missing dog, she recalled saying, “Oh my God, I love you, I love you, I love you!”
“You will always be a hero in my eyes for saving my girl,” the woman said to the brave dog-rescuer during their interview with the news outlet.
She posted the video of the daring save on Facebook, with the caption, “This man will forever be my Hero! Never told a stranger I love him so many times before. To some this may just be a man rescuing a dog, but to me, it’s a man rescuing an extension of my soul!”
“It was like one of those moments everyone probably has in their life like you’re going to make a decision,” MacRitchie told the AP. “I felt I was obligated to at least try to fetch this dog out of the river, as I have two dogs myself, and I would hope someone would do that for them if they were in that spot.”
He added that he had no idea how deep the river was when he got in.
“The only real stress I had about it wasn’t getting in the cold water. It was the depth. I did not know if it was 20 feet deep or it was 2 feet deep,” he explained. “When I broke through and I got on my feet and it was like waist-high, I was actually relieved by that. In my mind, during the moment, I thought, ‘OK this isn’t that bad. Yeah, it’s cold, but I feel this is a very doable situation.’”
Arizona has mostly recovered from the incident, Cerasoli said.
