Unreal story

[TerryW]

Horrid story with an amazing dog story ending. A jogger in Sarasota was killed by an idiot drunk driver. The dog the jogger was walking ran off after the crash and jumped into the Gulf of Mexico and swam up to a kayaker far from shore. The kayak was equipped with a video camera which captured the moment. The dog was rescued and is okay.

Hobie angler's video of dog rescue

The kayaker's name is Rory O'Conner.

More on the story HERE

[DoubleM]

Terrible story, I can't believe it all happened so early in the afternoon. It's all very sad for her family. If I remember correctly, Rory is a member here. He's a transplant from WA state or Canada, some where North and far from here.

Good job Rory!

[SRQGator]

Is that ShallowPockets?

[Rik]

Is that ShallowPockets?

nope, shallow pockets is Steve M. Gibson

[DoubleM]

Is that ShallowPockets?

the_tall_man, you can recognize him by the avatar/video.

Wonder how he did fishing the gulf before the dog popped up..

[DaveR]

I swear I saw that guy out fishing Friday. Nice fellow. And yup, I remember noticing how tall he was.

[Manning]

That is just an amazing and tragic story. Amazing that he had his camera running to document all that. This story simultaneously tells how bad people can be and how very good others can be.

[backinthemangle]

Way to go, Rory!

Two interesting sidenotes:

The Chen family (woman who was killed) are avid kayakers. Barney (the dog) probably headed
for the most familiar-looking thing he could find. And.....

Vizslas (amazing little dogs) were introduced into the U.S. in 1950 by a man named Frank....
get ready for it..... Tallman.

[the_tall_man]

Hey fellas,
yeah that was indeed me out there at point of rocks. Thanks for the kind words. Before the dog swam up to me I was thinking of calling it quits. Glad I stuck around a bit longer. Would have been extra horrible for that poor family to have lost their dog as well as their mother. It's a devastating tragedy.

Other than the dog, I didn't catch that much that day (some sheepies and a gag).

I was in sarasota for three weeks and there were only 3 days I didn't fish. Got back to WA yesterday. DaveR - it's likely you saw me fishing. I'm trying to think where I was on Friday. Perhaps the river. I really can't remember. Sorry I wasn't more active on the boards. I was busy either fishing, getting ready to fish, or sleeping. I fished the crap outta that place! :P I had to - fishing is pretty much shut down til April here in WA. I did get a chance to fish with Steve Gibson of ShallowPockets, which was great.

Got alot of video from my fishing that I need to cut together. But here's a pic of a nice saucy snook i got:

[TerryW]

Nice going, Rory. That snook is a beauty but I'm more impressed with the dog. Safe travels.

[Bigfish171]

Nice work.

[Manning]

Your story was the lead item on "Inside Edition" last evening. All of us animal lovers appreciate all that you and your family did even without knowing the whole story at the time. You will have to come back and visit us at tarpon time. Then you can get a chance to lift something bigger than that dog out of the gulf.

[Rik]

The story has gone worldwide. AP picked it up. All fo the usual news groups across the coutnry have it and it's even in the Telegraph in the UK. Google 'kayaker finds dog' and you'll get 2 1/2 pages of videos.

Good stuff, Rory. Of all the things you might expect out there, a dog swimming to you is not one of them. Unless you took it out there. I know about that.

Were you there when the dog was reunited with the family?

[americanrobster]

Nice catches! Prayers to the victims family.

[the_tall_man]

Were you there when the dog was reunited with the family?

I wasn't. But I did just talk with Dr. Chen - the guy whose wife was killed by the drunk driver. He was very thankful I took care of the dog. I know most people would have though. Apparently Barney is suffering from a bit of PTSD. Poor guy. He also requested that if people are so inclined, they can make a donation to MADD in the name of Donna Chen, to try and prevent this from happening again. I agree with that!

[Heywood]

Good on you Rory

I'm glad we got to the bottom of this mystery. I was afraid the kayaker was going to turn out to be 22acrowd J/K