{"id":12124,"date":"2024-03-06T16:56:35","date_gmt":"2024-03-06T16:56:35","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"Dog-rescue-Merrimack-River-54295123\/","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/?p=12124","title":{"rendered":"Concord passerby jumps into Merrimack to rescue\u00a0struggling dog"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Elated
Elated Rob Cary emerges from a trail with his dog Zoe, new friend Taury Anderson and rescue personnel after a harrowing ordeal on Wednesday in Concord.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Zoe,
Zoe, wearing a rescue jacket to keep her warm, owes her life to Taury Anderson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Rob
Rob Cary and Taury Anderson breathe a sigh of relief Wednesday after Anderson rescue\u2019s Cary\u2019s dog from the icy Merrimack River.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>

They\u2019d seen each other a few times before, a pair of dog lovers walking the trails under the Sewalls Falls Bridge in Concord.<\/p>\n

They\u2019d smile, nod, say hi \u2013\u00a0common behavior among dog lovers, who often know a dog\u2019s name before they know the owner\u2019s name. That was the case Wednesday, under the bridge, on a trail near the Merrimack River.<\/p>\n

But by time Taury Anderson and Rob Cary, both of Concord, moved into view in the boat launch parking lot shortly before 1 p.m., trailed by three emergency responders, their leashed dogs leading the way in front of the pack, they knew the other\u2019s name and had built a bond with iron-like strength.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know our names now,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what happens when you save the life of a dog that does not belong to you. Cary\u2019s dog, Zoe, a blue tip coon hound and rescue from Mississippi, had fallen through ice on the Merrimack and struggled to lift herself up, using her front paws only. Exhausted and shivering, she simply wasn\u2019t able to do it.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when Cary called 911. He was told firefighters would be there soon. Meanwhile, Anderson, who was walking her dog, Puzzle, and a friend\u2019s dog, Rondo, spotted Zoe struggling and Cary chopping through ice in an attempt to build a path with shallower water to increase the chance that Zoe could swim or walk back to shore.<\/p>\n

Anderson busted through the soft ice with her fists, jumped into the waist-high water and moved toward Zoe. She cleared some ice chunks, giving Zoe room to move from her prison and swim to shore, where Cary pulled her in, onto land.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ice was not strong enough to get onto it so there was no way you could walk on it,\u201d said Anderson, a software engineer. \u201cIt was just best to move through it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once she reached Zoe, 30 feet from shore, Anderson said the dog was \u201cpretty scared, growling, like she was saying, \u2018Don\u2019t get near me.\u2019 \u00a0I moved the ice out of the way so she could swim back and move through that trail.\u201d<\/p>\n

Five emergency vehicles, including a trailer carrying three rescue boats, one of which had a motor, arrived before firefighters climbed down an embankment, rushing to the scene of what could have been a tragic outcome.<\/p>\n

By then, though, the rescue had been completed. Cary, Anderson and Zoe were wet and cold, on a day with unseasonably high temperatures, reaching the high 50s.<\/p>\n

That begged the question: How did Zoe end up on the ice?<\/p>\n

\u201cI can let her off her leash and let her run,\u201d Cary said. \u201cWe have our routine and I will blow a whistle and she will come back and I will give\u00a0her a treat and then she goes out again. She\u2019s never gone out on the ice before, then four seconds later, she is right over there, and, boom, she falls right through.\u201d<\/p>\n

He called the fire department, moved back near Zoe and began to build his icy, makeshift gully.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was going to get them (firefighters) coming in and then get back (to Zoe) when Taury came along,\u201d Cary said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll go get her,\u201d Anderson said she told Cary.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s when I heard the angels,\u201d Cary said.<\/p>\n

Anderson is tough. She\u2019s competed a few years with the Granite State Roller Derby team. Her derby name, Russian Roulette, was shown below the left shoulder on her jacket.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ended up breaking the ice with my roller derby fists,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n

Cary also caught another break: Anderson once lived in a home with no running water. She\u2019d clean herself in Pleasant Lake, and that included in the winter. \u201cVery cold,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The nature of their relationship has changed, probably forever. Anderson and Cary will continue to see each other while walking their dogs. They may have more to say to each other than before.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe only knew our dogs\u2019 names,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cNow, we\u2019re all best friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They\u2019d seen each other a few times before, a pair of dog lovers walking the trails under the Sewalls Falls Bridge in Concord.They\u2019d smile, nod, say hi \u2013\u00a0common behavior among dog lovers, who often know a dog\u2019s name before they know the owner\u2019s name….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":12125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","_newspack_byline_active":true,"_newspack_byline":"by [Author id=5]Ray Duckler[\/Author] Monitor columnist","newspack_content_restriction_is_exempt":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[514,8],"tags":[94,24,505],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[513],"class_list":["post-12124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home-centerpiece-cm","category-news","tag-concord-nh","tag-facebook","tag-paywall","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/43089376-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12124"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12126,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12124\/revisions\/12126"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12124"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fnewspack_spnsrs_tax&post=12124"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=12124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}