NORTON SHORES, Mich. — If you look at 12-year-old Bo, it’s hard to believe what the labrador mix has been through. Less than two weeks ago the family let him outside to go to the bathroom, but turns out, their electric fence wasn’t working properly.
Both Ethel Strach and her sister Janet Reid said that they stayed up all night calling his name and searching the area.
“I was very sad. I was just certain something had happened to him,” said Reid.
“We didn’t know if we’d ever get him back because we didn’t know where he went or anything. You know, some people don’t pay any attention to a dog that’s just kind of out loose,” said Strach.
Thankfully a neighbor heard Bo struggling in the water near their dock. It had appeared Bo had wondered onto the ice covered lake and fallen through.
“It was a blowy night and I don’t know if that’s why we couldn’t hear him, but the neighbor down that way heard him and called the police,” said Reid.
Norton Shores police responded to the scene, and the family said that the officer pulled Bo out of the water.
“They have motors going to keep the water from freezing, and so evidently when he got fairly close to that open spot that the ice was getting thinner and he went through,” said Reid.
When the sun came up, to the family’s knowledge there was still no sign of Bo.
“By morning I just didn’t have much hope. I thought for sure that something had happened to him,” said Reid.
Thanks to Bo’s micro-chip, the call they were waiting for finally came.
“Pound Buddies called and said we have your dog and it was like, I cannot believe it,” said Reid.
The family raced to the shelter to be reunionited with their beloved furry friend.
“When he first saw us, he just kind of looked and his tail wagged. Like he wasn’t sure, can that really be them?” said Reid.
The family has since fixed the underground electric fence, to make sure Bo doesn’t wonder on the ice again.
