'Hero' Dog Alerts Owner to Man Trapped Below Icy Pond, Quick Thinking Saves His Life

Thomas Walsh of Stoneham, Massachusetts, was out for a walk around Quarter Mile Pond on Wednesday with his 5-year-old dog, Diesel.

Like many, Walsh had earbuds in while walking, and wasn’t really paying attention to anything beyond the immediate area.

But Diesal was. He started to bark, watching something out on the pond until Walsh noticed and followed his dog’s cues.

Apparently, a 22-year-old had decided to ride his bike over the icy water but fell through when he reached the middle.

“Ripping across right in the middle, he went right through, I’m surprised he didn’t go through near the edge,” Walsh told WFXT-TV.

“The dog alerted me that there was something going on in that water.”

Hesitant to enter the water himself because of the danger, Walsh first dialed 911 and then tried to coach the young man to help him get out of the frozen pond.

“I told him to try to relax, catch your breath because he was panicking, you know what I mean,” Walsh explained.

“My instinct was to go in and help him, I’m a great swimmer but you can’t do that in the winter time.”

“When he fell in that time there was another fellow walking through the woods, and I tied the dog to a tree and I grabbed a big branch from another tree and we threw it in and he was kinda too weak to grab onto it and pull it.