'What Are The Odds': Dog Rescuers Save Chihuahua Running Across San Bernardino Freeway
SAN BERNARDINO (CBSLA) — A pair of dog rescuers were leaving San Bernardino Tuesday afternoon when they saw a little dog running on the connector from the 210 Freeway to the 215 Freeway.
"Put your hazards on," Faith Easdale, one of the rescuers, said in the video. "Put your hazards on!"
At first the small pup was running along the shoulder, safely away from cars, before dashing straight into oncoming traffic as the rescuers watched.
"We pulled over, and the dog kept going and running into lanes and giving me heart failure," Easdale said.
Easdale and her rescue partner Jim frantically tried to catch the dog before another close call could happen.
"Hurry Jim," Easdale said as another car came zooming down the lane. The driver of that car stopped, pulling over at an angle to try to contain the dog which kept running down the freeway.
Fortunately, the dog found her way off the fast-moving freeway into a patch of brush.
"I went around her and kneeled down," Easdale said. "I got in front of her, and she crawled through the ice plant right to me, and then I grabbed her and started crying."
Easdale and her partner scanned the dog inside their car and found that she had a chip and a name — Tinker.
The pair called her owner, Dora Marin, who lives in San Bernardino.
"If I could have seen her in person, I could tell her mouth probably just dropped," Easdale said. "And she was just, 'What?'"
Marin said that she had no idea her 5-year-old chihuahua had escaped through an opening in her fence. She said she was shocked when she got the call while at the hospital where her husband was having emergency surgery. Marin said she was grateful that someone was able to rescue her beloved pet.
"What are the odds that we were right there and the dog was right in front of a rescue vehicle," Easdale said. "That was meant to be."
The pair of rescuers work for Dream Fetchers, a nonprofit organization dedicated to saving animals from being euthanized due to overpopulation at area shelters. To support the work of the organization and find out more, visit their website.
