Amid the recent icy, snowy conditions in the Washington region, rescuers came to the aid of three animals in trouble: two dogs that slid down slippery slopes, and a kangaroo that was blocking highway traffic.
The dogs, which encountered difficulties in Prince William County, Virginia, were saved Wednesday and Saturday by public safety personnel, as was the kangaroo, which was saved in Nelson County of the state, on Saturday.
Nelson County is about 35 miles southwest of Charlottesville, and might be regarded as on the outskirts of the expanded D.C.-Maryland-Virginia region.
In Prince William, a suburban area, the fire department used ropes and a sled in at least one of the dog rescues. In Nelson County, it was the sheriff’s deputies who guided the frightened marsupial to safety, according to authorities in each of the respective jurisdictions.
The kangaroo lives on a farm in Nelson County, and was inside a fenced area when a hunting dog entered the enclosure and began chasing it, said Mark E. Embrey, the county sheriff.
To escape, the kangaroo jumped an eight-foot fence and began to run. The animal was chased for miles, Embrey said, until reaching Route 29 and Oak Ridge Road. It was reported as “obstructing traffic” there, according to a statement from the sheriff’s office.
It was not clear whether the flow of traffic was hampered more by the physical presence of the kangaroo on the road, or simply by the unexpected sighting of the animal — or both.
Even in good weather and ideal driving conditions, the sight of a kangaroo on the road might be enough to make drivers wary and cause them to slow down.
Two members of the sheriff’s office went to the scene on the highway, and according to the statement from the office, they got the kangaroo out of the road.
The owner went to the scene with a tranquilizer gun, Embrey said. A dart from the gun subdued the animal and deputies helped the owner retrieve it. They aided in placing it in the owner’s truck.
A photograph posted online by the sheriff’s office shows a deputy with a kangaroo cradled in his arms, a big grin on his face and no doubt, a story to tell for some time to come.
By seeming coincidence, the kangaroo was rescued on the same day that a dog and a man slid several hundred feet down an ice-covered hill near Hudson River Court in the Dumfries area, said Assistant Chief of Community Safety Matt Smolsky of Prince William Fire and Rescue.
He said neither the man nor the dog could get back up the hill. Both needed help.
County rescuers used “specialized rope skills” in saving the two, according to Smolsky.
Neither the man nor the dog was injured, he said.
By coincidence, a similar incident had occurred earlier in the week on Wednesday. In that incident, a black Labrador retriever named Shelby “slid several hundred feet down an embankment” near its home also in the Prince William town of Dumfries, according to Smolsky.
Rescue personnel who were sent to the scene recognized that Shelby would need help in “getting up the ice-covered embankment,” he said.
They provided it, apparently through the use of ropes and a rescue sled, according to photos posted on X by Prince William County Fire and Rescue.
The dog appeared uninjured when reunited with her owners, Smolsky said. The owners, in turn, sent a note indicating that they, too, were very grateful for the lab’s rescue.
The temperatures on Wednesday and on Saturday never rose above freezing and may have been described as not fit for man nor beast.
But the overall degree of human and animal distress caused by the recent cold spell was apparently somewhat mitigated by the rescues.
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