Happy Ending Volunteers Save Dog From River

As a half-dozen people stood on the beach feeling helpless, a huge dog struggled in the cold current at the source of the Spokane River.

Malachite, a 110-pound rough-coat Akita, was in danger of drowning just offshore at the North Idaho College beach.

During a stroll on the beach, the gentle beast had broken loose from owner Yvonne Schell to chase some geese, with the leash dragging behind her.

“It got caught on the pilings out there, so she couldn’t get back to shore,” Schell said Thursday, a day after the near-tragedy.

Schell splashed out into the cold water, attempting to swim out and save her 14-month-old companion. But the current was too strong, sucked downstream by the wide-open spillway of the Washington Water Power Co. dam at Post Falls.

“I thought I was going to have to stand on the shore and watch my dog drown,” Schell said.

A dripping Schell arrived at the NIC child-care center across the road, yelling for help. The staff called the Kootenai County sheriff’s marine division.

Deputy Lamont Petersen arrived wearing a dry suit and another floating survival suit. He ventured into the water, eyeing the dog’s black muzzle that bobbed just above the water as she treaded water.

Another deputy was belaying Petersen with a rope, but Petersen didn’t get far into the current before he, too, turned back.

“It was too dangerous to send a person out there, even though I had a survival suit on that floats,” he said. Although the marine division’s boathouse was nearby, the boats were all in dry-dock.

Luckily, the campus phone tree brought the outdoor program director, Jason Luker, to the beach with a set of keys to the canoe storage area. Petersen and John Jensen, NIC’s director of housing, jumped in the canoe and paddled out to the dog.

By that time, the waterlogged Akita had begun to sink, exhausted but alert after a half hour in the water. When Jensen grabbed for the dog, after Petersen cut her leash, she bit his hand.

“I think (she) was trying to grab onto something,” Jensen said. The dog began to sink and Jensen grabbed the scruff of her neck and pulled her up on a log boom. The two men then brought the shivering dog to shore, and Schell took her to Sunset Animal Hospital.

“She was shivering violently,” Schell said. “When I got her to Sunset, both doctors dropped everything and just started working on her.”

While Malachite soaked in a warm bath, the Sunset staff gave Schell hospital scrubs and a cup of hot tea.

On Thursday, Malachite stayed near Schell’s desk at work, warm and dry.

“She’s not feeling too spunky today,” Schell said of her furry friend.

Petersen said both dog and owner were lucky.

“We don’t need people going out on the ice or in the water after their dogs. In 15 minutes you could be in full hypothermia,” he said. “It’s real dangerous.”

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