Dog Falls Through Ice, Cop Jumps in After Him

A hearty Vancouver police officer is being hailed as a hero for plunging into a freezing lake to save a dog, the CBC reports. (Police retweeted images here.) The pooch became trapped after he chased a ball onto Lost Lagoon on Friday afternoon and plunged through thin ice. By the time cops arrived, the dog was struggling to stay above water. Constable Peter Colenutt pulled off his coat and shoes and plunged into the frigid lake in short sleeves. "He took hold of one end of a rescue rope, and with his co-workers holding the other end, he made his way to the dog," Constable Jason Doucette tells CTV.

Photos posted on Twitter show Colenutt grabbing the black shaggy dog by the scruff and easing him through blocks of ice to the shore. Others show him padding in his bare feet in the snow to a squad car. "The dog and our officer were both pretty chilly, but thankfully okay," Vancouver police tweeted. It's not Colenutt's first water rescue. Last June, the officer raced into the water to save a swimmer in distress, per CTV; he had just been given an award in that case. Photos of the latest heroics unleashed a flood of praise for Colenutt on Twitter. "An officer AND a gentleman," tweeted one user. (A family dog saved a boy trapped in clothes dryer.)