Flood waters are incredibly dangerous for since strong currents can easily overpower even the strongest swimmers, and the water can contain deadly debris or contamination.
However, when one Australian woman discovered a horse struggling in flood waters about 40 feet from her home, she knew she had to save it, even if it meant swimming in the deadly water.
“My wife said she was going out there, so of course at that time I knew I had to go in,” her husband Leigh Shepherd said. “I just grabbed a boogie board that we had, swam out there and grabbed her by the mane and got her back to the house.”
Leigh pulled the horse, who they since have found out is named Tilly and belonged to a neighbor four houses away, to the front landing of the home, but she panicked because it too was flooded and she swam back to where he had found her. With his son Rob’s help, Leigh used an extension cord to guide her back to the house. Then the father and son pulled Tilly up on the porch of their home.
“Once we got her up on that landing, she just collapsed,” Leigh said. “The waters were still rising, so we just got that boogie board and kept it under her head. I don’t know how we did it, but I’m so glad we did.” But Leigh worried she wouldn’t survive in the freezing cold water that covered her entire body. “At one point I said to Rob, ‘She’s not gonna make it,’ but he was like, ‘She will.’ We stuck with it.”
Luckily, Tilly survived the night and rescuers arrived the next morning to take her to get treatment. “Despite being very tired, a little stiff and sore and having a deep laceration on one of her front legs, she was in a remarkably good way,” veterinarian Dr. Greg Baldwin said.
“We saw Tilly yesterday, and she looks just peachy,” Leigh said. “There’s been people who have lost their lives, so we’ve really been pretty lucky. It’s been a good thing to be able to do something for Tilly. We’re just so happy. I think we were her last option.”
What would you have done it you saw an animal struggling to stay afloat in a flood? Let us know what you think in the comments below and please SHARE this with friends on Facebook.
[Featured image: Facebook/Gillian Taylor]
Father And Son Rescue Horse Drowning In Dangerous Flood is an article from: LifeDaily