Manatee kept dog struggling to get out of river company before its rescue

A moment of kindness between two animals was captured by a Florida police officer just before a colleague rescued a stranded dog from the Hillsborough River. Residents in Tampa's Seminole Heights neighbourhood heard a strange noise coming from the river this past Friday night and then saw the dog, named White Boy, struggling to climb out of the river the next morning.

Officers from the Tampa Police Department’s Marine Patrol unit responded to a resident’s call for help on Saturday morning. As they were setting up their equipment for the rescue, Officer Jodie Maxim snapped a fortuitous photo. The photo shows the dog clinging on to a cement wall at the river’s edge while a manatee appears behind him. The officer who rescued the dog, Randy Lopez, a 30-year veteran of the department’s Marine Patrol Unit, said both the fresh water and the commotion likely drew in the manatee.

“They’re curious by nature so I’m sure the the sound of the dog splashing in the water trying to get up the sea wall got his attention and he came over to investigate, maybe calm the dog and tell him it was going to be alright,” Lopez said. Lopez said the dog was “clinging” to the makeshift sea walls with his front two paws. The officer used a nearby resident’s extension ladder to climb in and grab the dog. “It probably took about 20 minutes from start to finish,” Lopez said of the rescue.
A police department spokeswoman said the dog was reunited with its owners after they came out of their house to see what all the commotion with police in their neighborhood was about. The dog suffered bug bites and had bloody paws but was otherwise not injured. It is not known how long the dog was in the river, or how long the manatee was there beside him before help arrived. “Once I got in the water I could see it kind of turned away and gave one good little flutter with its tail and was on its way,” Lopez said.