This is one of those stories you just have to see to believe. When Donna Chen was tragically killed by a drunk driver, her dog fled the scene in a complete panic. The dog was quite utterly terrified, shocked and in complete disbelief as to what had just happened to his owner. He probably didn’t know what to do except run for his life. What happened next is nothing short of a miracle.
This is a photo of Donna Chen (left) with her three children.
Donna was tragically killed by a drunk driver while she was walking her dog Barney.
The driver of this car, Blake Talman, 22 years old, was going 90 mph when he hit them. Donna was killed, but her dog survived, and fled the scene in a complete state of panic and fear.
Blake Talman had been drinking whiskey at the beach earlier that day, and his blood alcohol level was 0.222 percent. (Way above the legal limit.)
What happened next is almost unbelievable, and it’s made even more astonishing by the fact that it was all caught on video. Nearly a mile away from the scene of the accident, Rory O’Connor was fishing, with his camera running in case he caught any big fish.
Suddenly, he spotted something coming toward him. As it got closer, he saw it was a frightened dog in the middle of the ocean!
Not knowing why this distressed dog was swimming toward him, Rory pulled him up into his boat.
“He was really really scared and he was shivering. At first I thought he was cold but then I could tell he was really scared,” Rory said. “He had to swim pretty far and he was pretty beat up. His paw was bleeding and he had a bunch of scrapes.”
He brought him to shore, but couldn’t find his owner anywhere.
Rory took Barney home to take care of him, then posted his video on YouTube, still unaware of what the dog had been through moments earlier.
Sometimes when you’re fishing, strange things happen…like, dogs swim up to you
UPDATE: the mystery is solved. However, it’s very sad and unfortunate: http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/news/region_sarasota_manatee/53-year-old-jogger-killed-in-sarasota-dui-crash-according-to-fhp The accident scene was about a mile from where I found Barney swimming. Our guess is that he was so freaked out and traumatized that he just wanted to get as far away from there as possible.
If Rory hadn’t been in the right spot, Barney might not have been able to swim much longer. Rory’s clip of a mysterious dog in the middle of the ocean quickly spread online. It was an unsolved mystery at first.
But Rory did the right thing and took Barney to the vet. He discovered a microchip, which led him to Donna’s family.
“I think a higher power led Barney to where he needed to be because out of this horrible tragedy there is something remarkable that happened. Her puppy is alive,” said Donna’s sister, Diane.
I imagine that Donna’s family is pretty glad to have Barney back in their family right now. Sometimes the most tragic accidents result in tiny miracles!
