UPS Driver Strips Down, Swims In Icy Water To Rescue Dog

BOZEMAN, MT — The sun was setting on another cold night in Bozeman, Montana, and UPS driver Ryan Arens was making a pre-Christmas delivery when he heard it: A dog was frantically yelping, obviously in distress. Aerns made the delivery, then went to investigate.

“This dog was screaming and crying and going crazy,” Arens told the Great Falls Tribune. He still had packages to deliver, but as a dog owner himself with a “weakness for animals,” he couldn’t just drive away.

Arens steered his brown truck to the other side of a pond and saw tragedy about to happen. A dog was surrounded by ice about 10 or 15 feet from the shore. An older man in a row boat was frantically chipping at the ice, but he wasn’t having much luck. The sheriff’s and animal control officers were on the way, but Arens didn’t didn’t think the dog would last that long.

So he stripped down to his boxer shorts and set out to rescue the dog from her icy predicament. He commandeered the boat, then “slid the boat out onto the ice, using it to distribute my weight," Arens told the Great Falls Tribune. “I shimmed out to where the ice was thin.”

The boat broke through the thin ice, plunging Arens into 16 feet of water. Swimming in the icy water wasn’t what he had planned, but he forged ahead and reached the dog just as “she was starting to go under,” he said.

Pulling the dog by her collar, he swam to the safety of the shore, where the man originally attempting the rescue handed him a blanket and took his house. Arens and the dog’s took a hot shower to warm up.

“Helps the elderly gentleman, saves the pup and then finishes his route. I guess on weekends he leaps tall buildings in a single bound.”

— Conni King, UPS Dogs Facebook page

Once the dog was safe, Arens who got cut up some during the dramatic rescue, delivered 20 more packages before he called it a day.

The story might have been one of untold instances where UPS drivers have helped people in need — and Arens counts it as his best day in 14 years with the company — but he happened to have a package delivery later at the owner’s home.

The dog, whose name he later learned is Sadie, was in the cab of her owner’s pickup.

“She was freaking out, and when he let her out she ran to me,” Arens told the Great Falls newspaper. “She must have remembered me. It sure made me feel good.”

Sadie, a 2½-year-old wirehaired pointing griffon, “had a whole lot of life left in her, and I'm really glad I was able to act when I did,” Arens said, adding, “She's a sweetheart.”

Arens shared the newspaper’s story about his heroism on his Facebook page, where his friends credited his kindness and compassion.

UPS Dogs shared the post on its Facebook page, where it got at least 28,000 positive interactions and hundreds of comments.

“Helps the elderly gentleman, saves the pup and then finishes his route,” user Conni King observed, adding, “I guess on weekends he leaps tall buildings in a single bound.”

Christel Johnson Scheiwer said Arens’ selfless act “restored my faith in humanity.”

“This was above and beyond,” she wrote. “You are a hero.”

“Not many people would have had the smarts and the strength to do that,” Louise Klein wrote. “Thank you!”

This from Joe Mason that injected some humor in the hundreds of comments praising Arens:

“Dogs should take a day to not bark at UPS trucks.”

Here's a photo of Arens with one of his dogs:

Lead photo: Patrick Semansky / Associated Press