'Tough puppy' rescued from Sebago Lake

STANDISH – A dog named Hank was warm and happy to be reunited with his owner Tuesday afternoon after spending much of the morning treading water in icy Sebago Lake.

Hank, an 11-year-old hound mix owned by Tim and Susan Duchaine, of 2 Starlit Way in Standish, likely got disoriented after chasing a bird or animal about 250 feet out on Sebago Lake. The thin ice gave way and Hank may have spent about two hours treading water until being rescued at about 8 a.m. by Standish’s water-rescue team.

Tim Duchaine, who attempted to save Hank before calling his wife, who then called 911, picked Hank up at the Standish Veterinary Hospital at 2 p.m. Tuesday. And both owner and dog couldn’t have been happier.

“I don’t know how he survived, the old boy,” Tim Duchaine said, recounting the look on his dog’s face when he and his son went out onto the ice to get him. “Because the ice was breaking, we could get only to within about 8 feet of him. And he couldn’t figure out why we didn’t just grab him. And the poor thing, near the end, he started going under a couple of times. Another five minutes, he probably wouldn’t be here.”

Susan Duchaine, who let the dog out as usual at about 5:30 a.m. when she left for work, said Hank doesn’t like to swim and never ventures out onto the ice.

“I think that it snowed over near the shore and he probably just thought he was still on land. But he must have been chasing something. We’ve had a lot of eagles this year, so maybe there was one of those out there that he was checking out. I don’t know,” she said.

Tim Duchaine knew something was wrong when he went outside around 7:30 a.m. to call Hank for his breakfast. He heard him off in the distance.

“His bark changed, more of a cry. It was like he was in distress. You could tell,” he said.

After he called his wife, she dialed 911 and immediately drove back home.

“I was freaking out. We love him. He’s one of our family,” Susan Duchaine said.

The Duchaines were thankful to both the Standish Rescue and veterinary hospital for saving their dog. According to Standish Fire/EMS Chief Brent Libby, coming to the rescue was Capt. Ben Haskell and firefighter Matt Smart, who wore cold-water suits and got in the water to get the dog up on the ice. Firefighter/paramedic Aaron Riley and Firefighter/EMT Tom Minton assisted.

“Our concern is when people go out after them,” Libby said. “If ice is light enough for a dog to go through, then certainly the people who try to rescue the dog can also go through.”

Once Hank was out and on land, rescuers dried him off and started heating him in the back of the water rescue truck. Standish Animal Control Officer Jack Freitas arrived and wrapped Hank in an emergency blanket and transported him to Standish Veterinary Hospital, where Dr. Alec Thomson further warmed the 100-pound dog, whose temperature fell to below 92 degrees. A dog’s temperature is usually 100-102.5 degrees, he said.

“The important thing is to try to raise their temperature quickly,” Thomson said. “We warmed him with a heated surgery table, forced hot-air blankets and hair dryer. We put some warm fluids into him. But fortunately, I think our patient was not in the most severe stage. He was still shivering, which I think would have stopped if he were below 90, so the fact that they’re shivering shows his body never lost the ability to fight the cold.”

Thomson credits the dog’s size and speedy rescue for the dog’s survival.

“When he came in, his head was up, his color was decent, so I think the folks that got him out of the water did a fantastic job, and I also think we have a pretty tough puppy,” Thomson said.

Hank’s rescue isn’t the only recent animal save for the Standish Fire/EMS Department. In mid-January, the department responded to a fire on Dale Lane in which a cat was found unconscious. Libby says two deputy chiefs, Rich Wallingford and Rob Caron, used their oxygen masks to revive the cat until a special pet-oxygen mask was used by firefighter/EMT Virginia Price.

Both cases are rare, Libby said, especially Hank’s case, where he treaded water for what could have been a few hours in near-freezing water.

“No, it doesn’t happen very often, fortunately. But we’ve certainly been keeping our eye on the ice conditions just because the weather has been so crazy and the lake had taken and then it broke open,” Libby said.