Helicopter saves dog from lake ice floe

WESTFIELD, N.Y. (WIVB) - First responders raced into action along the icy shores of Lake Erie. What unfolded next makes for a truly amazing tale of one dog's incredible journey.

It was almost strike three for Koozie, three attempts to rescue the dog stranded on an ice floe nearly a half mile out on Lake Erie. But fortunately, for a pet that had been missing for five days, the third time turned out to be a charm.

Koozie's rescue actually started last night when a passerby saw the dog out on the broken ice and stopped to take a closer look. Nathan Myers was with his sister and mom.

"Saw it, you know, like a black dot and was just wondering what it was and saw it was moving around. So we had our digital camera zoomed in on it and saw that it was a dog," explained Nathan.

Nathan called authorities and a team of six Westfield firefighters donned their cold water rescue suits and went out on the ice, but it was just too dangerous. So they summoned Erie County's chopper, Air One, but an ice rescue was determined to be too risky and the search was called off until morning.

Capt. Dave Davis of the Westfield Fire Department said, "Five steps, fall through. Unfortunately, because of the shape of the ice, it wasn't working for us. So we had to abort the mission."

Captain Kevin Caffery of the Erie County Sheriff's Office actually got Koozie into a rescue basket pretty easily and brought her to shore as firefighters prepared to receive her, but as soon as the wayward dog touched terra firma, she headed right back out onto the ice.

"He came running right across, jumped into my lap just about, and started licking my face to get him out of there," said Capt. Kevin Caffery.

Then it was back in the air, but this time, Koozie was a little more desperate to be rescued.

Capt. Caffery said, "This time he actually fell through out there and he was a goner. He was actually sinking and we grabbed him, pulled him up by a paw out of the water, and got him onto the ice."

After pulling Koozie out of the water, they tied her up to avoid a fourth trip out onto the Lake. After some medical attention, Koozie was fed and her owner, Phil Frost, was notified.

Frost said, "She's doing good. She's eating. She's eating like a horse right now. She's coming out of the shock."

And it was a happy reunion between a warmed up doggy and a grateful owner.

"If you guys weren't covering it, I would have never seen her. If these guys didn't risk their lives to go out and get her off the ice, she wouldn't be here," said Frost.

Ironically, Phil Frost says Koozie is terrified of water. That's why he and others never bothered to look out on the lake. It seems, maybe Koozie is afraid of water, but likes ice - at least a little bit.