Dog survives plunge into river

When Quigley disappeared over the edge of a precipice in Riverside State Park, Daryl Rodrigues thought the dog was doomed.

The Spokane River churned roughly 90 feet below at the base of the rock outcrop where the 65-pound blonde and white pooch had stood moments before.

Rodrigues, a Spokane attorney, and his family hiked in the state park Saturday to avoid Hoopfest crowds in Riverfront Park. It was their first time there with Quigley, the dog that the family of four adopted from the SpokAnimal shelter about 18 months ago.

“I was attached to him the minute I saw him, frankly,” said Rodrigues, adding that Quigley reminded him of his first dog.

Rodrigues crunched over a dusty gravel trail toward a rock outcropping that features a viewing area of the Bowl and Pitcher rock formation. By the time he reached the viewing area, Rodrigues had let Quigley off the leash – a violation of park rules, as indicated by a nearby sign.

“We walked up the steps together, and at the top I turned left to look over the river,” he said. “And there is a wooden footbridge below. I heard a sound, and I turned around and just saw his rear end going over the wall.

“I ran right over to the edge and looked down, and I felt real dizzy because it was so high. I couldn’t see him for maybe 15 seconds.”

Then Quigley popped to the surface, looking limp and unconscious, Rodrigues said. He vanished underwater again before resurfacing and swimming for shore.

Amazed that their dog was alive, Rodrigues and his son Garrison, 16, walked down the steep slope to look for Quigley, but they were unable to see him through underbrush.

“That river is so dangerous,” Rodrigues said. “I really love the dog, and the trail ended and I wasn’t going to go any further.”

But, with Daryl Rodrigues’ wife, Lisa Sem-Rodrigues, yelling directions from above, they reunited with the dog.

“He was completely wasted, as you would imagine after such a fall,” Garrison Rodrigues said. “He was pretty exhausted from the swim, too.

“I’ve lived in Spokane almost all my life, so I knew that it was going to be bad. It’s the Spokane River. … Every year I see stories of people who have been swept away from it.”

The family rushed Quigley to a veterinarian who checked him over for injuries, but found only bruises.

“He was really sore over the weekend; he had a hard time moving around,” Daryl Rodrigues said. Rodrigues would have faced a $95 fine if he had been caught with the dog off-leash, said Lori Cobb, senior office assistant at the park.

She said no one she talked to at the park had heard about Quigley’s jump. Gail Mackie, executive director of SpokAnimal, said she remembers several instances when dogs jumped into the Spokane River near Riverfront Park. In May 2002, a golden retriever named Bailey survived a plunge of 136 feet from the Monroe Street Bridge downtown.

Another dog survived after jumping from a truck on the Mission Street Bridge into the river, Mackie said.