OTISFIELD — “I am so thankful to live in a community where saving a dog is valued and is important,” says Dawn Nee about the first responders from three fire departments who rescued her dog Kristoff from the icy waters of Saturday Pond in Otisfield last month.

Dawn and her husband Tim share their Otisfield home with three dogs, Kristoff, Cocoa and Snoopette. With a combination of perimeter electric and above-ground fencing along the shorefront, the dogs are able to enjoy uninterrupted outdoor privileges.

But on the morning of March 26 the couple was alerted by Cocoa’s barking in the direction of the pond.

The dogs had managed to breech the fence and had gone to the pond. Tim saw that Snoopette, a 90-pound Great Pyreness/Border Collie mix, was in the water close to the shore.

“He was able to get to Snoopette himself, and brought her out of the water,” Nee told the Advertiser Democrat. “He called to me that he didn’t see Kristoff. We were calling for him, but he didn’t come.”

Standing on the deck of their house, Dawn saw that further out in the pond there was a black spot. It was Kristoff, in open water but surrounded by broken ice.

“He is not the best swimmer,” she said. “Even though he is a lab mix. None of our dogs are really swimmers. Kristoff is the least comfortable with it.”

Tim ran next door to grab a kayak while Dawn started calling around the neighborhood to see if anyone was able to help, and then called 911.

“We raised all the alarm bells for help, not knowing how fast it would come,” she recalled. “One neighbor went out in the kayak but ended up falling in the water, just as the responders began arriving.”

With two people exposed to the icy water, rescuers first made sure they were okay and sent them inside the house to dry off and warm up.

“Kristoff was still hanging out there,” she said. “At one point it looked to me like he was a statue, not moving at. I thought we might lose him.

“But we had lots of help arriving by then. We had rescue from Otisfield, Norway and Oxford. EMS and fire were on scene and they all jumped into action.”

Lt. Corey Nugent of the Oxford Fire Department and Norway Fire Chief David Knox both donned wet suits and went in the water – with the kayak – after Kristoff.

“The dog was 50-75 feet out. They put the dog in the kayak,” said Otisfield Deputy Fire Chief Ryan Fox, who was the first to arrive and the officer in charge of the scene. “The crews pulled them in, and the dog just rolled in the snow and rubbed on everyone who was there. A couple of shakes and he was ready to go back inside.”

“They said Kristoff was sort of holding onto a piece of ice,” Dawn said. “But he went right to them and made it easy for them to lift him into the kayak.

“He ran around and said hello to everyone with his wiggle-butt tail. I was so scared, I was shaking for hours afterward.”

Dawn said it took about 30 minutes from the time she first saw Kristoff in the water until he was on the shore thanking his rescuers.

“That our first responders were willing to go in and save our dog means so much to us,” she said.

For Fox, Kristoff’s saga is a good reminder for all to be wary of Maine waterways as the spring thaw ramps up.

“Early ice and late ice is most unsafe,” Fox said. “The conditions – you just never know with ice. It can be very dangerous. Everyone needs to take special precaution.”