Photo courtesy of RNLI Hastings Lifeboat Station
From the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s (UK) Facebook page:
A dog rescued from the sea at Hastings, East Sussex this morning had been missing since last Sunday.
At 9.30 this morning, (4 February) the UK Coastguard received a 999 call from a member of the public telling them that a dog had chased a seagull into the sea on Hastings beach, East Sussex.
Nick Jury, Senior Coastguard Operations Officer, based at Hastings, quickly spotted the dog in the water and was able to guide the RNLI Inshore Lifeboat and its volunteer crew to the righ…t place to rescue it.
Storm, a 7 year old long-haired German Shepherd who had been missing since Sunday, was reunited with his happy owner at the station, before going to the vets for a check-up.
Storm’s owner said that he couldn’t thank the UK Coastguard or the RNLI enough. He said: ‘I have been out looking for Storm since he went missing on Sunday and last night I was out until midnight searching for him. When I got the call this morning that he was on the beach, I was over the moon. But when I got down to the beach he’d already swam out to sea. I was just frantic to get him back. The Coastguard reassured me the whole time, talking me through the rescue process and keeping me updated on how they were conducting the search. I just can’t thank them all enough for bringing him safely home.’
UK Coastguard Nick Jury said: ‘This is a very happy ending for Storm. The owners had put up posters informing people that he was missing and he was spotted on the beach this morning by a member of the public. By chance, the dog’s owner was also in the area searching for him.
‘I had spotted the dog in the water and was able to guide the RNLI Hastings Inshore Lifeboat to Storm, by which time he was about 1 mile out to sea. He was completely exhausted when the RNLI reached him and he was rescued just in the nick of time.
‘Happily Storm has been very fortunate to survive quite a swim out to sea. In this instance we had a 999 call and a member of the public had come into the office at Hastings to alert us. His owners and the members of the public did exactly the right thing by calling the UK Coastguard and not attempting to rescue him themselves – which is the best advice we offer dog owners. We want people to enjoy the coast and this simple measure could save lives.’
Photo courtesy of RNLI Hastings Lifeboat Station
Loves a happy ending!
DCG