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http://www.myfoxorlando.com/dp...ve-doberman-pinscher

Dolphins save Doberman Pinscher stranded on sandbar

Updated: Wednesday, 02 Mar 2011, 11:09 AM EST
Published : Wednesday, 02 Mar 2011, 10:42 AM EST

MARCO ISLAND, Fla. (Newscore) - A Pennsylvania woman on vacation in Florida took a tip from two dolphins to save a lost Doberman Pinscher that got stranded on a sandbar.

When Audrey D'Alessandro and her husband, Sam, walked out of their home on Marco Island, near Naples, Fla., to go fishing, "we saw these two dolphins, and they were splashing and making this big commotion" in a canal behind their vacation home, she said.

Although it is not uncommon to see dolphins swimming through the canal on their way to the Gulf of Mexico, Audrey D'Alessandro said that this time, "they were just there, in one place, splashing water against the canal wall."

When the D'Alessandros went to investigate, they saw that an 80-pound Doberman Pinscher was standing on a sandbar, half-submerged even at low tide. The dog, which disappeared from a nearby home some 12 hours before, was too weak to bark, she added, and could not get back onto land because of a several-foot-high canal wall.

By the time the nurse lowered herself into the canal to get onto the sandbar, the dutiful dolphins were gone, but her husband called firefighters, who helped Audrey D'Alessandro hoist the dog out of the water. Turbo, who was shaking and unable to stand after being rescued, was quickly reunited with his owner -- who got the happy news while putting up lost-dog posters.

A few days later, a thankful Turbo and his owner made the eight-block trip to visit the D'Alessandros, who have a yellow Labrador of their own.

But Audrey D'Alessandro brushed off the island-wide praise the couple received afterward, saying that while "people pulled up to us when were driving and said, 'You're the couple that saved that dog,' I said, 'Yeah, sure.' But I think it was really those dolphins.

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http://www.poconorecord.com/ap...10302/NEWS/103020325



By Chad Smith
Pocono Record Writer
March 02, 2011

When Audrey D'Alessandro of Paradise Township was on vacation last week in Florida, she and a team of rescuers came together to save a dog trapped in a canal near her vacation home. And who else made up that team of rescuers? Her husband, firefighters — and two dolphins.

It all started when D'Alessandro and her husband, Sam, walked out of their home on Marco Island, near Naples, to go fishing. Behind the home is a canal where "we saw these two dolphins and they were splashing and making this big commotion," said Audrey D'Alessandro, a 16-year Pocono resident.

Dolphins usually swim through the canal behind the home, as it leads into the Gulf of Mexico, but this time the dolphins weren't just passing through.

"They were just there, in one place, splashing water against the canal wall," she said.

When the couple went to investigate, they saw that an 80-pound Doberman pinscher had fallen into the canal. The dog was standing on a sandbar and was half submerged in the water. (It was low tide at the time.) The dog, which had gone missing from someone's home 12 hours prior, was too weak to bark, she said, and the dog couldn't get back onto land because it couldn't climb up the canal wall, which was several feet high.

By the time D'Alessandro, who works as a delivery and labor nurse at St. Luke's Hospital in Bethlehem, lowered herself into the canal to get onto the sandbar where the dog was standing, the dolphins had already gone.

Sam D'Alessandro, of the engineering firm RKR Hess Associates in East Stroudsburg, called firefighters who, along with his wife, helped hoist the dog out of the water. The dog, Turbo, was shaking and wasn't even able to the stand when he got out of the water. The dog belonged to someone who lived eight blocks away.

"The owner was putting up 'lost' posters when the cops told her that the dog was found," Audrey D'Alessandro said.

A few days later Turbo and his owner came over to the D'Alessandros. All are now friends.

The D'Alessandros, who have a yellow labrador of their own, said that other news agencies in Florida were contacted and for the rest of the time the D'Alessandros were on Marco Island, they were almost like local celebrities.

"People pulled up to us when were driving and said, 'You're the couple that saved that dog,'" she said. "I said, 'Yeah, sure.' But I think it was really those dolphins."