A dog owner crawled across a frozen lake to rescue her pet dog after it fell through the ice.
Alice Wardill spotted the brave dog walker edging across the frozen pond to rescue dog Freddie after he became trapped in the icy water.
Alice, 78, had gone to Connaught Water, in Chingford, Essex, for a walk when she snapped the intrepid dog walker.
The retired insurance clerk from Harlow was visiting with husband Peter, 80, and disabled son Paul, 56, on January 27.
Alice said: “We were at Connaught Water as usual at around 12pm when we heard a woman shout ‘no Freddie’.
“The dog ran onto the ice and then fell into the water where it had melted.
“We really thought he wouldn’t get out, and then we saw her crawling on the ice – first on her front and then she got on her knees.
“At one point I couldn’t watch, I thought she would fall.
“The dog was flailing around but she pulled him by his collar and crawled back to safety.
“She was very brave, and it was Freddie’s lucky day – she got him very quickly.
“It was so cold he would have died if she hadn’t rescued him.
“I don’t know if she was silly or brave but she was in the middle of the ice.”
Alice says by the time the fire brigade had arrived, the woman had already jumped in her car and taken Freddie home.
She has no idea who the woman could be.
Alice added: “By the time the fire brigade came, she had already dried him off and driven off.
“She said she was too cold to look at my photos, I would have liked her to have seen them.
“She just got her dog back no matter what.
“We often take Paul for a walk there and feed the ducks, I take a lot of wildlife photos so I’ve always got my camera with me.”
