Dog rescued from kayak nearly 5km out to sea after freak wave

Bruce the brave Alsatian* had a lucky escape when he was rescued from an inflatable kayak that floated almost 5km out to sea.

His owner Arran McArthur, of the United Kingdom, had popped him in the boat for a bit of fun during a day at the beach, when a sudden wave pulled Bruce from his grasp, The Sun reported.

Mr McArthur desperately swam after Bruce but a strong offshore breeze swept the pooch further out to sea.

Mr McArthur returned to shore at Bamburgh in Northumberland, England, to call the coastguard* and an RNLI* lifeboat* was launched to search for Bruce.

A mayday* call was also made. Tourist boat skipper Jimmy Reid heard the mayday call as he dropped off 90 day-trippers on the Farne Islands* to see a colony of puffins*.

Captain Reid, 36, and crewmate Aaron Fordy decided to join the search.

“The lifeboat and a second boat were checking closer to the shore, so I looked further out where I thought he might have drifted,” Captain Reid said.

“After about half an hour, we saw a blue and white kayak but its sides were quite deep, so we couldn’t see if there was a dog in it.

“To be honest, we thought we were going to find an empty boat.

“The dog was really hunkered* down, so it wasn’t until we got right alongside we saw it was in there.”

As Mr Fordy tried to pull Bruce on to their boat, Serenity IV, the frightened dog slipped out of his harness and splashed into the sea.

Luckily Mr Fordy was able to reach down to haul the cold and shaken pet on to their boat, where they wrapped him in towels to warm him up and gave him a drink.

After radioing the good news, the Serenity IV then picked up their tourists from the Farne Islands before heading back to port to reunite Bruce with his owner. Along the way, they gave Bruce plenty of cuddles and told him many times what a good boy he was.

“Aaron has two Alsatians himself, so he was able to look after him,” Captain Reid said.

“By the time we got there, Bruce was full of beans and couldn’t wait to get on dry land. I’ve been at sea 10 years now and seen some unusual things — but never a dog alone in a boat before.”

Mr McArthur was very relieved and grateful – not to mention also very apologetic.

“I’ll not be putting Bruce in the kayak anytime soon, that’s for sure,” he said.

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission

POLL

GLOSSARY

• Alsatian: German shepherd, a large, intelligent dog breed often used to help guard buildings and assist police
• coastguard:
• RNLI: Royal National Lifeboat Institution is a British charity that saves lives at sea, relying on thousands of volunteers and operating emergency rescue operations for over 200 years
• mayday: a special emergency radio signal sent from a ship or an aircraft when it needs help
• Farne Islands: group of uninhabited islands just off the North Sea coast of Great Britain
• puffins: black and white seabird with a large, brightly-coloured beak, found in the northernmost parts of the Atlantic and Pacific
• hunkered: crouched, squatted, sheltered, remained secure in a place of safety

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QUICK QUIZ

1. What was the type of inflatable craft Bruce was found in?
2. What dog breed is Bruce?
3. What were the day-trippers aboard Captain Reid’s boat dropped off to see and where?
4. What was the name of the tourist charter?
5. Where in Great Britain did the rescue take place?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Safety around water
This story could have ended very differently or maybe could have been prevented in the first place.

Think about all the lessons we teach children about being safe around water. What are five key safety measures that could have been put in place to keep Bruce and his owner safe at the beach?

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Time: allow 10 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Health and Physical Education, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

2. Extension
Why do you think Bruce’s story became newsworthy around the world? What makes people interested to read this story?

Time: allow 10 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

VCOP ACTIVITY
Imaginative dialogue
Imagine you were there for the rescue of Bruce, or for the interview afterwards.

Create a conversation between two people from the article – you may need or want to include yourself as one of the characters. Don’t forget to try to use facts and details from the article to help make your dialogue as realistic as possible.

Go through your writing and highlight any punctuation you have used in green. Make sure you carefully check the punctuation used for the dialogue and ensure you have opened and closed the speaking in the correct places.