A family is shedding tears of relief after they were reunited with their beloved dog lost at sea earlier this week. Ben and Kathleen Baker had been out boating with their dog, Ellie, in Fort Myers Beach in Florida when they noticed Ellie had vanished.
“I was navigating under the Sanibel bridge and stopped playing with her to watch the traffic. After we passed the bridge and entered the Gulf, my wife asked, ‘Where’s Ellie?’ I immediately put the boat in neutral, but she was nowhere to be found,” said Ben.
They immediately began searching in a zigzag pattern but couldn’t find Ellie. They searched and searched well into the night until their boat ran out of fuel. That’s when the fear set in.
“I just thought that was it. I’m 72 years old and have probably cried more in the last 18 hours than I have in years,” Ben told WINK News.
Fortunately, that wasn’t “it” for Ellie. She had luck and some eagle-eyed diners to thank for her miracle rescue. Diners onboard the Sanibel Harbor Princess spotted Ellie swimming a mile and a half off shore between Fort Myers Beach and Lighthouse Beach on Sanibel.
Ellie at sea. WINK News
Terry Johns, captain of the Sanibel Harbor Princess, also spotted Ellie. Terry said, “I looked out and saw something in the water, then heard people shouting, ‘dog, dog, dog’.
Terry, his crew, and passengers worked together to save the drowning dog and got her on board.
“Our currents are pretty strong this time of year,” he explained as to why Ellie found her way so far from shore. She might have been washed off, but it’s more likely she fell off someone’s boat, and they didn’t realize she was missing.” He guessed right!
Once they were back on shore crew members brought Ellie to a veterinarian to get scanned for a microchip. She had one but it wasn’t working! That’s when Terry contacted the local news station to share the dog rescue story.
Thankfully, the news segment was watched by the Bakers, who were overjoyed that Ellie had survived. A happy reunion followed with the tremendous relief and joy evident on everyone’s faces!
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