During a recent fishing trip near Memphis, an unexpected rescue mission unfolded when a fishing crew found themselves saving dozens of dogs from Grenada Lake in Mississippi. Bob Gist from Jonesboro, Ark., and his friend Brad Carlisle from Covington, Tenn., embarked on a fishing trip with local guide Jordan Chrestman.
Their peaceful outing took a dramatic turn shortly after they set off. Chrestman noticed something unusual in the water: more than three dozen dogs struggling to stay afloat. The dogs, which were identified as hounds, were wearing expensive radio collars and marked with white paint.
Stranded far from shore, the animals were clearly in distress and unable to navigate back to land. The dogs were at least a mile offshore when the fishermen spotted them, indicating they had been lost for some time, said local news reporters.
The fisherman and the rescued dogs. Photo courtesy of WLOX
Reacting fast, Chrestman steered the boat toward the struggling animals. The team managed to rescue 27 dogs in their initial trip, bringing them aboard and transporting them safely to shore. Upon returning for the remaining 11 dogs, they encountered a particularly frightened white dog that initially resisted rescue attempts by biting at them. But they were determined to rescue him.
“When we first started there was this white one that Brad tried to reach for and the dog bit at him. He moved closer to me, so I tried to reach for him, and he tried to bite me, so we left him.” Gist said. “When we came back for the second load it was probably 30-45 minutes later. By that time, he was ready to get in the boat. He wasn’t biting anybody.”
The canines were reportedly part of a fox hunt, but got distracted by a deer that they chased into the lake. “The dogs jumped a deer; the deer ran and jumped in the lake and ran off and left the dogs. The dogs kept trying to follow the deer and got lost,” Gist continued. They weren’t sure if there were more dogs that had not managed to survive.
We were scared to ask. All I know is we rescued every dog we saw. Dog paddling and treading water for 45-60 minutes in the middle of the lake is a long time.”
They knew the situation had been dire and were just glad they found them in time. “They were lost,” Gist said. “The dogs were at least a mile offshore. The way their heads were in the water, there’s no way they could see the shore. They were dog paddling and completely lost.”
Despite the challenging rescue, Gist and his friends were just glad to have been there at the right time. The dog owners, who had no means to rescue the dogs themselves due to the lack of a boat, were grateful and offered money as a token of appreciation, which the rescuers declined.
