A dog missing for 12 days was spotted swimming out into San Francisco Bay – so firefighters launched a boat and went in after her.
Prieta, a 7-year-old dog belonging to East Palo Alto resident Maribel “Mary” Juarez, had been missing since the Fourth of July.
But on July 16, someone called 911 after spotting a dog swimming nearly half a mile out from Cooley Landing Park, heading toward open water.
Menlo Park firefighters responded, tracked the dog with a drone, and launched Airboat 77 into the bay. Firefighter Tyler Estkowski leaned over the bow and scooped Prieta up with one arm.
The dog had been attacked by seagulls while swimming and was left with a gash on her cheek. But crews wrapped her in a jacket and brought her to shore, shivering to receive treatment.
The Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA took it from there, tracing the soggy, exhausted dog back to Mary, who had been checking local shelters since the holiday.
At a Menlo Park Fire Protection District board meeting honoring the rescue crew on July 21, Mary held Prieta and thanked the firefighters who saved her.
“I don’t go anywhere without her,” she said in Spanish through an interpreter. “She’s like my partner.”
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Board president Virginia Chang-Kiraly called it one of the most dramatic rescues she’d seen.
“This is the happiest ending for all of us,” Chang-Kiraly said, thanking the airboat crew who pulled the “brave little” dog from the bay.
Twelve days after she vanished, Prieta made it back to the only place she wanted to be – in Mary’s arms.
