River rescue pup is safe

A puppy that jumped into the River Trent was saved from drowning by two British Waterways engineers.

The black labrador was in the river outside the British Egg Packers building on Millgate on Saturday.

The skipper of the Newark Crusader, Mr Les Reid of Farndon Road, Newark, watched the puppy jump.

He said: “Two chaps with a pick-up truck were trying to catch their puppy, but it was giving them the slip and then it jumped into the water.

“The river has walls on either side and the puppy couldn’t climb out so it was trying to hang on to the brickwork.

“Tourists were coming to see what the commotion was.”

Mr Reid said it was impossible for the puppy’s owners to reach it because the walls were around 8ft high.

He said: “There were no boats that I could get into to go across and help and there are no ladders on that side of the river.”

Mr Reid called to British Waterways engineers Mr Julian Rasen and Mr Jim Gilbertson, who were working in the nearby dock.

He said: “They grabbed a rake and ran over to help.

“By the time they got round to the other side of the river the dog was just about giving up because the water was cold and it was exhausted.”

Mr Rasen and Mr Gilbertson helped the puppy’s owners to hook the rake underneath it and pull it out of the water.

Mr Reid said: “The puppy seemed to be fine other than being tired and cold.

“If the lads hadn’t been working at the dockyard there would have been no way of getting the puppy out of the water and I’m sure it would have died.”