A family out on a winter walk was stunned when their dog led them into a creek – only to discover a stranded dog freezing and unable to walk which they quickly rescued by pulling home on a sled.
Jason and Kris Zackowski were on a walk with their two dogs, Bunsen and Beaker, on a cold day in Alberta, Canada, when Bunsen, a Burmese mountain dog, suddenly took off.
As it was freezing cold and the snow was so deep, the couple had been walking along the fence line of the farm where they live.
Bunsen, however, headed deep into a creek, which Jason and Kris were unable to walk down because of the snow – but when Bunsen didn’t follow their recall commands, Jason knew he needed to investigate.
Having made it into the creek, he discovered Bunsen standing guard over a freezing-cold dog, who was slumped on the ground and likely only hours away from disaster.
Realizing how unwell the dog was, as she couldn’t stand, Jason and Kris contacted their son, Adam, who headed to meet his parents with rescue supplies: blankets, snacks, a sled and a rope.
The family then used the snacks to build trust, before wrapping her in blankets and pulling her back to their home on a sled.
While the dog warmed up, Kris logged onto a local Facebook page for lost dogs, where she connected with her owners and discovered the pooch’s name was Bailey and had been missing 48 hours.
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The couple later returned Bailey to her owners, before sharing a video of the moment, from February 15, 2021, in a throwback post on their dogs’ popular social media page in 2026.
Jason said: “We didn’t know why she was in the creek – perhaps she was dumped, lost, a stray, or someone’s pet.
“I would have hoped that if our dogs went missing people would have tried to help them.
“So, we planned to do everything to rescue the dog as she couldn’t stand and sledding the dog out didn’t work, we would get a neighbor’s snowmobile to help.
“Without Bunsen, Bailey would have went missing and in all likelihood died deep in the creek bed, so I now walk that route every winter to make sure we sweep the area just in case.