Rescuing Nellie

An older Golden Retriever that is not Nellie

By Steve Halpern

Yesterday I was doing my usual bike ride along the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia. Then, I noticed several people leaning off the railing bordering the river yelling Nellie, Nellie!! I looked at the river and saw about eight geese congregated and squawking.

Then, I viewed something in the river about thirty yards out. This turned out to be Nellie, a twelve-year old Golden Retriever. Nellie was not swimming to shore but swimming parallel to the shore against the current.

I asked if the owner of Nellie was there. She certainly was, but she was frantically calling someone on a cell phone.

I was thinking that I might need to jump into the water to rescue Nellie. Normally I’ve been swimming about a half mile two times per week, so I thought this might be a possibility. However, Nellie appeared to be a strong swimmer and I chose to wait and see.

Nellie started to swim to shore, but then reversed and continued to swim against the current. More geese were congregating and squawking, appearing to help Nellie in her predicament. However, Nellie might have been trying to avoid all those loud birds.

We might keep in mind that on land I’ve noticed that geese are afraid of even the smallest dog and run when they see one approaching. But in the water the geese apparently felt safe squawking at a dog from a distance.

Then, Nellie started to swim to the shore again.  The geese now flew into the water so they formed a semi-circle that prevented Nellie from going back out to the river.

Now, I understood that I might be needed to bring Nellie to shore. There was a three to four foot drop at the concrete wall that bordered the river. Nellie would need to be pulled up from the river and out of the water. I took off my fanny pack and gloves. I probably should have taken off my sunglasses, but didn’t.

When Nellie reached the wall, she clearly was unable to get on land, so she started swimming back out to the river. Then her owner, a young woman, jumped into the river and bought Nellie to a place where we might bring her in.

Another young woman reached all the way down the wall and grabbed Nellie’s harness. Understandably this woman wasn’t able to pull up the eighty-pound Nellie. Then, she demanded that the men give her assistance. I grabbed one of Nellie’s paws and someone else also grabbed Nellie, and we got her out of the water. Then, we pulled the owner out of the water.             

One thing we might notice in this story was that the women were the most aggressive and played the most important roles in this rescue. The men, including me, were mere assistants.

So after all of this I felt good seeing Nellie stretching out on the grass and her owner relieved. Human beings, as well as animals, have a natural tendency to give assistance when we feel it is needed. Unfortunately there is a government in this country that doesn’t have this same opinion.