Suburban woman rescued from icy pond, her dog still not found
OSWEGO, Ill. - A suburban woman followed her dog onto an icy pond, which then led to a daring rescue effort.
It shows the potential dangers of frozen lakes and ponds.
Normally, Margaret Mitchell of Oswego would not let her French Bulldog mix, named Penny, off leash. However, she decided to try it on their recent morning walk.
"Then she started going toward the water and I called for her, I called ‘Penny come back,’" she said.
But the 3-year-old rescue pup slipped into this partially frozen retention pond, so Mitchell jumped in after her.
"I wasn’t even thinking about how cold it was, I was thinking about the boots on my feet and were they gonna weigh me down, did I need to kick them off… What did I need to do?" Mitchell said. "I was just screaming for Penny, I was trying to get Penny to fight to come up so that I could maybe just hold her and they could get us both."
But Mitchell was fully submerged in the icy water, screaming for help. Luckily, a neighbor heard the screams, called police and went down to help pull Mitchell from the water.
"I'm glad she's safe. But I feel for Penny," said Linda, Mitchell’s sister.
SkyFOX was overhead as crews went back into the water, trying to find Penny. Both fire and police were on the scene, but with all the ice, they could not locate the dog.
"They haven’t got her. She’s still in there," Mitchell said.
Now, Mitchell hopes to find a way to get Penny out of the icy pond, so she and her family can say goodbye.