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Zack Keithy, our author, is a certified veterinarian technician (UC Blue Ash) for over 6 years (contact him here). The articles written here are based on his expertise and experience, combined with a review by our expert vet reviewers including Dr M. Tarantino. Learn more about us here.
A Golden Retriever named Seren was rescued by the RNLI after being swept out to sea off the coast of Wales. Seren had been placed in the trunk of owner Andrea Phillips’ car when she got spooked, bolting out and running toward Porthcawl beach. Despite the best efforts of another dog walker nearby, she darted across the rocks and straight into the water.
That dog walker, named Josh, called 999 and requested the coastguard. Porthcawl RNLI launched their Atlantic 85 lifeboat, Rose of the Shires, and the crew spotted Seren almost immediately once they came around Newton Point, roughly 300 metres from shore. By that point she was exhausted and being pulled further out by the tidal current. Footage of the rescue captured a crew member’s reaction as she was hauled aboard: “Miraculously, we have just come across a Golden Retriever in the water.”
Porthcawl RNLI Helm Chris Missen said the timing made all the difference. “Thankfully we spotted Seren as soon as we came around Newton Point and we were able to recover her onboard the lifeboat. She was a little shaken but otherwise unharmed.”
Phillips, who has rescued many dogs over the years, said Seren is by far the most traumatised of any she’s taken in, and that the beach walks had only recently started to feel comfortable for her. “I honestly can’t thank the volunteer RNLI crew enough for saving Seren,” she said. “They turned a nightmare into a dream. It was like something out of a movie seeing the crew member in their gear carrying Seren from the lifeboat through the shallows.” She also thanked Josh for his quick thinking in making the call, along with everyone else on the beach who helped that day.
My thoughts: The detail that lands hardest here is that Seren was a traumatised rescue dog who had only just started getting comfortable with beach walks, which makes the whole thing that much crueller as a piece of timing. A dog who spooks easily bolting into open water is about the worst possible combination, and what saved her wasn’t a heroic swim or anything dramatic, it was a bystander picking up the phone fast enough and a volunteer crew happening to round the right headland at the right moment. Three hundred metres out with the tide pulling against her, the window on this one was genuinely narrow.
Source: Talker News / RNLI
