A yellow Labrador saved her human’s life Tuesday afternoon when she led deputies to the brook where he had fallen and was suffering from hypothermia.
A woman called the York County Sheriff’s Office about 4:45 p.m. when she heard yelling coming from the woods behind her Whaleback Road home in Limington.
When deputies arrived at her home, they found a 3-year-old yellow Lab named Samantha, who was trying desperately to get their attention.
“In a scene out of a classic Lassie movie, the dog kept barking until Sergeant [Steve] Thistlewood followed her,” the sheriff’s office said.
Samantha led the deputies to a brook, where her 84-year-old human had fallen into a brook and was suffering from severe hypothermia. His body temperature had fallen to a life-threatening 84 degrees Fahrenheit, the sheriff’s office said. Hypothermia can set in when the human body’s internal temperature falls to 95 degrees and becomes life-threatening if it slips below 90 degrees.
The man’s son told deputies that his father, who is legally blind, followed Samantha after she ran into the woods. He tripped and fell into the brook, where he yelled for help until succumbing to exhaustion and the cold, the sheriff’s office said.
“By the time the Thistlewood arrived, the man had stopped yelling and the sergeant depended on the man’s faithful companion for assistance,” the sheriff’s office said.