Scituate officer in kayak rescues dog stranded in ocean

SCITUATE, Mass — A Scituate police officer using a resident’s kayak rescued a dog stranded in the ocean Sunday morning.

Gypsy, a five-year-old Labrador-Golden Retriever mix had gone for her usual dip at Peggotty Beach around 9 a.m.

While Gypsy typically swims and returns when called, her owner Lauren Sears told Boston 25 News, this time, she followed a bird and then kept swimming farther out, finally grabbing hold of a distant buoy on a boat mooring, refusing to let go.

“She had her mouth on the mooring,” Sears said. “She was biting on it, to bring it in. She’s a retriever; I think she wanted to bring the mooring in to us on the beach. And no matter how much we tried to get her to let it go, she did not.”

Gypsy was becoming tired, and Sears and her son were frantic, screaming Gypsy’s name.

“My dog’s going to drown out there,” Sears recalled thinking. “All I could think about was her going under and I still wouldn’t have been able to get to her. And it’s panic. It was panic.”

As beachgoers gathered, one advised Sears to call police as another ran to get a kayak from a neighbor.

The officer arrived and set out in the kayak, coaxing Gypsy away from the mooring. He guided her back to shore safely after what Sears estimates was nearly 30 minutes in the water.

“Officer Bill kayaked out, got so wet. I felt so terrible, because the water was so cold,” Sears said. “Eternally grateful that he did that… I don’t know what we would’ve done.”

Gypsy is Sears’s son’s therapy dog and a critical part of their family.

“The officer was a huge help, and so were the people on the beach,” Sears said. “They were all just so lovely. They were so helpful. That’s what community is all about it.”

Gypsy spent the rest of the day relaxing before a trip to the groomer scheduled for Monday morning.

“She is exhausted, and I have a feeling she’ll be exhausted tomorrow,” Sears said.

Sears says she will keep Gypsy on a leash in the water in the future.

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