An assistance dog named Bear was brought home from New Jersey to Manhattan after swimming across the Hudson River. The story, which is incredible, begins last Saturday.
A few days earlier Ellen Wolpin bought Bear for her son, who suffers from a developmental disorder. The dog, a cross between Leonbergers and Bernese Mountain Dogs, is about six months old and was raised outside New York. He therefore has to settle in a big city and in his first outings he is rather cautious, almost afraid; on the other hand Ellen and her son never take his leash off when they go out.
In fact, on Saturday they’re just going to buy him a new collar when suddenly Bear manages to take off what he’s wearing and starts running. We are on the Upper West Side, between West End Avenue and 80th Street, for those familiar with the Big Apple.
Someone tries to catch him, but Bear gets scared and starts running even faster. After a couple of miles, at 110th Street, he plunges into the Hudson River. From that moment all traces of him are lost; not even the police patrol boats can find it.
Ellen waits a few hours and then loses hope; she’s already thinking about getting another dog and telling her son that she’s Bear.
Instead, surprisingly, on Tuesday the woman receives a phone call from Edgewater, a small town in New Jersey: the firefighters found Bear under a bridge and rescued him; the police then traced back to the dog’s owners thanks to the microchip. Before being returned to his owners, Bear was seen by a vet. He’s very thirsty and probably still in shock, but otherwise fine.
Ellen and her son are over the moon – and will be buying him a new harness shortly, to make sure they never lose him again.
