Woman rescues dog from freezing lake

FAIRFIELD - A Fairfield woman performed a heroic rescue Sunday afternoon, saving a dog that had fallen through the ice on Pleasant Lake in Fairfield.

The woman, Taylor Ross, does not even own the dog. She just happened to be in the area when the dog fell through.

According to Lt. Julie Kinsella of the Fairfield Police Department, a different woman, whose name was not released, was walking the dog around the lake on the north side of Fairfield at about 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 22. The dog ran out onto the lake, which was only partially frozen. Once it got to about 30-40 yards out, the dog reached a soft spot in the ice and fell through.

Fairfield resident Jack Dowd was finishing a trail walk around Pleasant Lake at that very moment, and was able to observe the events unfold.

'I heard a dog yelping and a lady screaming for her dog,” Dowd said.

A police car pulled up near the lake and an officer ran down to investigate. Dowd could see that a dog had fallen through the ice. It was flailing in the water, unable to get back onto a hard surface.

Dowd observed that Taylor Ross, a Maharishi School alumna who graduated from the school the same year as Dowd's wife Darin, and a few of her friends were also walking near Pleasant Lake. Ross saw that the dog was in trouble, and volunteered to go out on the lake in her kayak. A police officer drove Ross to fetch her kayak. When she returned to the scene 10-15 minutes later, the dog was still in the freezing cold water.

'I'm sure the dog was numb at that point,” Dowd said.

Dowd said the first responders and other members of the public who gathered at the shore were trying to figure out the best way to save the dog.

'No one wanted to risk a person's life,” Dowd said. 'But [Ross] really wanted to save this dog. She's a big animal lover.”

The first responders on shore tied a rope around Ross, and she ventured out onto the ice in her kayak. She scooted out slowly but surely until she reached the dog. She reached into the water to pull the dog out, but the dog bit her hand. In the commotion, the kayak capsized, sending Ross into the freezing water, too. Despite the injury to her hand, Ross was still able to lift the dog out of the water and onto the ice. The first responders pulled on the rope to lift Ross out of the water and guide her back to shore, too.

'Once she got to shore, several officers and firefighters bandaged her hand and got her out of wet clothes,” Dowd said. 'Taylor was very brave to do this. It's fortunate everything turned out OK.”

Dowd said that, as far as he knows, the kayak still is on the lake because it was not retrieved.

Kinsella said the moral of the story is that most ponds and lakes are not completely frozen through.

'Don't assume it's safe to be on the ice,” she said.

Ross could not be reached before publication of this article.