Dog rescued from waters following seal chase

One determined dog luckily had her ocean swim cut short after she was found over a kilometre away from the Motueka shoreline last night.

Tim Kelly from Bays Boating Ltd was out on the Motueka Harbour Monday night testing a boat when he thought he saw a log floating in the water.

“After I first saw it I went to head back to the marina, I’m not sure why I turned back. I saw some birds circling the log so I thought I should go back for a second look,” says Tim.

Luckily he did as he soon discovered the big log was actually a big dog paddling in the water.

“At first I thought I was hallucinating or seeing things. You don’t expect to see that at least a kilometre out from the shoreline,” he says.

Jess, a seven-year-old leonberger, labrador and alsatian mix, was over a kilometre out from the Kina Peninsula shore attempting to chase a seal pup.

Tim says the seal pup was “intimidating” Jess, swimming away a few metres at a time and letting Jess catch up before swimming off again.

Tim managed to line the boat up between the dog and seal but Jess showed no interest in giving up the chase despite the tide pulling her out further.

“The dog was ignoring me, it was looking at the seal and was still trying to swim around the boat,” he says.

After 10 minutes of manoeuvring the boat, Tim was finally able to lift the dog by the collar onto the boat.

“You could tell she was getting tired. If I hadn’t been there I could see it disappearing under the water. I prepared myself to jump in and grab the thing before the water carried on taking it out,” he says.

Tim took Jess back to work with him before dropping her at The Vet Centre Motueka.

“It was a fluke, I was just in the right place a the right time,” says Tim.

Jess’s owner Martin Peat says this is Jess’s second seal chasing adventure out on the water. Last year they had to wait over an hour for her to come back to shore.

“She’s one hell of a dog,” says Martin.

Martin had been walking her along the Kina Peninsula when she ran off into the water.

“She kept going out and it got dark so I had to give up calling for her,” he says.

Martin managed to get in touch with Tim later that night who told him Jess was at the vet.

“She stayed at the vets overnight and my partner picked her up this morning. She’s good as gold but thirsty as hell,” he says.

Martin thinks Jess would’ve swum two to three kilometres atleast before being rescued. He says he’s thankful Tim was there to pick her up when he did.

“It's just a bloody miracle he was out there, or she wouldn’t have given up until she couldn’t swim anymore,” he says.