Fon du lac park district police department rescue

Today if you don’t believe in miracles then here is a story that may change your mind! After a random last minute decision to take a long walk where we had never been before, the ranch manager (Kevin Ioerger) and myself the Director at Mended Hearts (a non for profit equestrian counseling center www.mended-hearts.org), heard a distressed yelping noise! After walking several miles in a secluded area off of the river down at the Woodford county conservation area, we saw a stranded dog on some fallen pine branches surrounded with unstable broken ice in the IL river! The dog had no way to get to shore and we tried to wade out waist high in frozen water breaking ice to get to her but it was over our heads! After calling numerous rescue services with no rescue craft available, Micheal Johnson Director and Chief of Fondulac park district police department answered our call! They had just purchased a rescue Hover craft from a generous anonymous donor that the boat is named after called “Rosemary”! Chief Johnson raced to the rescue right before dark, the Chief and Kevin jumped into the rescue hover craft and down the river shore they went while I ran on foot on the the path to where the pup was to beacon them with a light to find the stranded pup! With the boat struggling through the ice the rescue was made! We thanked Chief Johnson profoundly and Mended Hearts staff brought the poor frozen lab pup to Mended Hearts barn, dried her and warmed her and fed her, she was ravenously hungry! Exhausted we changed into dry cloths and decided to get something to eat at the Duck Inn and so it happens that day a lady had brought in a hand made poster of two lost family dogs! Ken the owner had heard our story and pointed out the poster! We called the family and found out the pup’s Name was “Mazie” had been missing with another one of their dogs (older black lab named Lucky) for almost a week! The Salem family raced to Mended Hearts and in tears embraced their beloved dog! It turns out they had been praying all week and before I had called them, their daughter (who is the owner of Mazie) had just told her dad she didn’t think she would ever see her beloved lab pup again! Her parents being a family of faith had told her not to give up believing and pray! 10 minutes after that prayer she had our phone call! Now this story isn’t just for dog owners it’s for anyone that seems all hope is gone, never stop trusting God to hear your prayers even when seems all hope is lost!