(NewsNation) — Without hesitation, Chris MacRitchie braved the frigid waters of an icy Vermont river, wading over to a dog and gently pulling it to shore, where his wife wrapped it with a sweatshirt.
MacRitchie’s son first spotted the dog as they were going through the drive-thru of a nearby Dunkin’ in Berlin on Jan. 10. When they reached the embankment of the Stevens Branch, a tributary of the Winooski River, the father of two jumped in to save the pooch.
“It’s certainly a personal decision. I wouldn’t recommend going into icy waters, in general. It would have been hard to just drive away, knowing how that turned out,” MacRitchie told NewsNation.
The dramatic rescue was caught on video by his son and was shared widely on social media. The video shows MacRitchie approaching the embankment as the dog struggles to escape the waters.
In the video, MacRitchie gingerly steps through the ice and into the water, wading toward the dog, which was on the other side of the frozen river. MacRitchie lifts the dog out of the water and onto the icy embankment before carrying it over to his wife.
“It felt great,” MacRitchie said, describing how he saved the dog while wearing a T-shirt, sweats and boots. “At the time, I didn’t think it was as big of a deal as it’s become, but I kind of felt like it was something I’d hope somebody would do for my dog if they were in the river.”
MacRitchie called the dog’s owner, Morgan Cerasoli, whose number was listed on the dog’s tag.
Cerasoli said she had been looking since Jan. 9 for her dog, named Arizona, a 7-year-old mutt who had originally been rescued from the side of the road in South Carolina. She was heading to pick up her daughter from school when she got the call from MacRitchie who said he had “pulled a drowning dog” out of the river.
“I’m so grateful for him, every single minute of every single day,” she told NewsNation.
Cerasoli said Arizona is doing “fantastic” and called the incident a “blessing in disguise” — after the dog was rescued, it was diagnosed with Lyme disease and has been on medication since Jan. 11.
“She’s got the puppy back in her, and she’s doing great. She’s lovey; she’s wonderful,” she said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.