Missing dog rescued 1.5 miles off Florida shore by dinner cruise party. ‘Heroes’
A sunset dinner cruise about a mile-and-a-half off Florida’s Gulf Coast turned into a rescue mission when someone spotted something out of place.
“I looked out, and I saw something in the water,” Captain Terry Johns told WINK. “Then I started hearing, ‘dog, dog, dog.’”
The boaters quickly realized the paddling animal wasn’t a typical sea creature.
“Sure enough, it was a little puppy that was making its way toward the back of the boat,” Johns told WBBH.
The captain and the crew of the Sanibel Harbour Princess rescued the dog in the middle of the cruise July 28, according to Marriott Sanibel Harbour Resort and Spa, which owns the yacht.
“We were about halfway into the cruise, had just finished dinner, when someone shouted, ‘There’s a dog out there,’” Bill Carrick recounted on Facebook. “I could tell we were between 1 and 2 miles from shore. So I thought, “Must have misheard that. Surely they said dolphin.”
It was an unusual sight, but it was a dog. Carrick said the captain turned the engines off so they could pull her into the boat.
“This sweet, well cared for, and trained dog quickly became the star of the cruise,” Carrick wrote.
He added the pup didn’t seem overly tired, so they didn’t think she had been swimming very long.
The yacht returned to harbor, and the search began for the dog’s family.
Then Ben and Kathleen Baker saw their dog on the evening news, they told WINK and WBBH.
It turns out the couple had taken their dog, Ellie, out for a boat ride, but briefly took their eyes off her and turned back only to realize she was gone, they told the outlet.
They said they searched for her until they nearly ran out of fuel and had to go back in, according to WBBH.
“I just figured that was it. I’m 72 years old, and I have probably cried more in the last 18 hours,” Ben Baker told WINK.
The couple confirmed the rescued dog on the news was Ellie, and they drove to get her back. The reunion was caught on camera.
The Marriott called the captain and crew “heroes.”
The rescue happened off Fort Myers beach.
This story was originally published July 31, 2024 at 4:26 PM with the headline "Missing dog rescued 1.5 miles off Florida shore by dinner cruise party. ‘Heroes’."