KEARNY –
This story does not have a happy ending. Animal-lovers may want to skip it entirely. But your correspondent chooses to print it because it indicates the lengths to which decent humans will go to save our four-legged friends.
On Monday, Oct. 3, at 3:10 p.m., the Kearny Fire Department received a call that there were people in the Passaic River at the foot of Laurel Ave. The KFD arrived to find that it wasn’t people; it was a poodle. The dog, out for a walk with its owner, was reportedly either off the leash or had broken free from it when it jumped in the water and began swimming across the river.
The KFD launched a boat, began a search, and eventually found the poodle on the Newark shore, about a quarter-mile south of where it had entered the water, Fire Chief Steve Dyl said. Unfortunately, as the rescuers were approaching, the dog ran up the riverbank and onto Rt. 21, where it was hit by a car.
Dyl said that driver stopped, and so did another, who picked up the injured pup, checked the info on its tag and called the owner. That motorist then drove the dog to the crew house near the Belleville Pike, where the owner was waiting.
The poodle was taken to the nearby Arlington Dog & Cat Hospital, where, tragically, it succumbed to internal injuries, Dyl reported.
The chief summed up the sad saga in two simple words: “We tried.”
Sometimes that’s all you can do.
– Karen Zautyk
