“An emergency you always have to jump on it,” she said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re off. Emergency calls are always necessary. Especially me being right around the corner, I was glad I took it because my partner was over 30 minutes away in South Charleston.”
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Miller said she took her dog catcher’s pole and started to break the ice near the bank and then started to wade into the freezing cold water herself.
The dog was about 50 feet from the bank, and Nicole was only wearing her cargo uniform pants and jacket.
“I had to throw my phones and my radio on the sides of the bank,” she said.
Miller then radioed into dispatch for boats.
Springfield Fire Rescue Division, German Twp. Fire Department — and even a bystander with an ice fishing boat — worked for nearly an hour to get Ruby back to land.
“You could see that she was just paddling, a little bit just to keep herself afloat,” Miller said. “But almost like she kind of stopped caring — like she was just defeated.”
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Ruby survived the incident and was taken to Noll Veterinary Hospital for evaluation before being released to back her owners.
“I sent (Ruby’s owner) the photo I had in the back of my car and she was just bawling on the phone — happy bawling — but so happy that her dog was safe,” Miller said.
Ruby’s owners, who live near the lake, said Ruby and another one of their dogs got out of their yard through a hole in the fence, which they’ve now repaired — but they wanted to extend their thanks to the rescue crews who brought Ruby home to them safely.
Their other dog who escaped their back yard was found at a neighbor’s house.
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