A couple visiting San Diego was treated to a Thanksgiving miracle when San Diego lifeguards located and rescued their missing dog from the ocean Sunday.
The couple were in town watching football when they realized their black labrador mix, Sadie, was missing, the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department wrote in a statement.
Using an AirTag on the dog’s collar, the couple tracked Sadie’s location and began walking down the beach.
Two miles away in Ocean Beach, a surfer alerted the lifeguard tower that a dog had been swept into a rip current and was drifting out to sea. “I just had a surfer run up to the truck,” a lifeguard said on dispatch audio, “he’s saying there’s a dog that’s on the jetty.”
Lifeguards and the U.S. Coast Guard searched the area but could not find the wayward pup.
The search lasted more than an hour, said Garrett Smerdon and Jack Alldredge, San Diego Fire Deparment lifeguards credited with the rescue. They felt that given black labs’ ability to swim and Sadie’s age — 5 years old — she was likely still alive and swimming, or paddling.
“After an extensive search with no sightings, lifeguards began making their way back in—until a miracle happened,” the fire department wrote. A rescue Jet Ski had spotted Sadie a half mile offshore near South Mission Beach. The rescuer loaded Sadie onto a boat and brought her back to shore.
“She was super happy to see us, for sure,” Smerdon said. “She was tired.”
Sadie’s parents said in a video that they were with rescuers when the radio call came in that she had been found alive, bringing them to tears.
“We just really wanted a happy ending,” Smerdon said, “and we’re glad that Sadie got to go back home and, you know, survive this pretty traumatic event.”
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