It took a whole team of firefighters to save him, and once he was safe, he took off.
It turns out this dog is not a stray. A woman who saw our video says that's her dog, and she's desperate to get him back.
The woman tells us her dog's name is Tristan.
She lost him last week and blanketed the neighborhood with fliers, trying to find him.
She couldn't believe it when she saw him on FOX 10.
“When I first saw him swimming away, and I’m going, ‘No,’ and I saw him come toward the camera, and I thought, ‘Well, I think so,” said Meredith Hedghes. “As soon as they got him out of the water, and he started to struggle with the firefighter, I knew it was him. And when they got the departing shot, and I was absolutely positive -- it was definitely Tristan.”
Tristan is a 6-year-old Sheltie, and Hedghes says he's her baby.
He escaped through a hole in a backyard fence last week. She's been searching for him ever since.
And with every hour that passes, she grows more worried.
“The fact that he’s out there, and someone doesn’t have him – it’s very warm. There’s the heat. I figure he probably went into the canal because he was thirsty and fell in,” Hedghes said.
It took a lasso, a ladder and a whole team of firefighters to bring him to shore Wednesday.
Hedghes says the reason he wasn't exactly grateful is because he's afraid of strangers.
“At home, he’s all over the place. He barks, gets into things -- when you get him in public, he’s very shy. It took him over a year to get used to my daughter’s fiancé coming into the house,” she said.
She's hoping his cameo on FOX 10 will help bring him home.
“I would love if anyone sees him -- could try and apprehend him or catch him. See him and give me a call so I can go look for him. I would so appreciate it,” Hedghes said.
UPDATE: And we do have some good news to report.
Just before this video aired, Hedghes called us and said she just found her dog. It turns out someone brought him to a shelter in the east valley. So she had just picked him up, and as you can imagine, it was a very happy reunion for her Sunday night.
(Fox10 - May 6, 2012)
