A small black and white pup is continuing her road to recovery after being rescued just in time from a freezing Illinois lake over the weekend.
Dory was inside a cage when Bryant Fritz spotted her floating in the lake and jumped in to save her.
She’ll remain with animal control services until a police investigation wraps up, the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine said.
Once she’s up for adoption, Fritz says he wants to bring her home with him.
“I’m so happy she made it,” he told CNN.
When he spotted her in the water, no one was around, the middle school science teacher said. He took his sweater off and jumped in.
“I thought about calling someone but I didn’t think she had an extra five or 10 minutes,” he said. “I just didn’t know.”
He put her in a car, wrapped her in a blanket and took her to the animal hospital.
The dog arrived at the University of Illinois Veterinary Teaching Hospital hypothermic and was so cold, thermometers couldn’t get a reading, the facility said. It took about three hours of warming efforts to get her temperature up to normal levels.
“She also needed care for wounds that do not appear to be related to being in the lake,” the hospital said.
Courtesy Bryant Fritz
Fritz hasn’t seen the dog since but wants to be her forever home.
“We are the first ones on the list,” he says.