'One of the greatest feelings': Regina woman reunites dog with owner after rescuing her from icy creek

Two Regina women became friends in an unlikely manner after one rescued a dog who fell through an icy creek.

Betty White, a dog belonging to Meg Brookes, wriggled away from Brookes on a walk after being scared by a larger dog.

“Betty was so spooked by this that she managed to wriggle out of her harness and ran, and ran and ran,” Brookes said.

The little dog ran several blocks before eventually falling through the ice on the creek.

Britt Heisler happened to be driving by and saw that the dog needed help. She recruited the help of the first person to answer their door, then ran into the creek.

“I saw a little white circle just flopping in the water and I basically just dove in there to get her,” Heisler explained. “I managed to get her and walk her back up to the bank and handed her to the gentleman who was helping me and then I thankfully had a towel in my car so I wrapped her up in that and then called her mom.”

Brookes said she was about to post something online when she got the call from Heisler.

“I think taking her home to her family was probably one of the greatest feelings one could experience,” Heisler said.

Betty White was reunited with her owner after she was rescued from an icy creek. (Hallee Mandryk / CTV News)

Betty was taken to the vet where she was treated for mild hypothermia and has since made a full recovery.

“It has restored my faith in mankind. There’s so many ugly things going on in the world and for something like this to happen to me and Betty, I’m just so forever grateful to Britt” Brookes said.

“I’m just glad I was in that place at that time,” Heisler said. “I think the universe puts us in places we need to be when we need to be there.”

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While the shallow water allowed Britt to reach Betty White safely, Gord Hewitt, deputy chief of the Regina Fire department, recommends calling in the experts in the future, as they are trained to respond to ice water rescues.

“Call 911, let us come out and try to deal with it. We have the training, often we see people get themselves in trouble by going and doing that, especially when we have extremely thin ice,” he said.