The real story behind #GoodBoyStorm dog saving a deer on Long Island

From Mark Freeley: owner of the dog that saved a baby deer from drowning.

I had taken Storm and my other dog, Sarah to the beach because I had been fostering two puppies all week that were such an interruption to our own dogs’ routine that I figured my dogs needed a break. The shoreline beach in Port Jefferson Harbor is not a bathing beach, so it’s quite dog friendly. Storm was off leash and running ahead of me and at a point I notice he is charging into the water and swimming after something. I saw a small animal’s head bobbing in the water and when I got closer I realized it was a fawn. Storm gets about 100 yards out to the fawn and its head goes under a few times. Storm reaches and grabs the baby deer by the neck and starts swimming to shore!

Once he brings the fawn to shore, it just lay there at water’s edge. Storm was so excited he just stood over it as it lay there, panting. When it didn’t get up, Storm laid down next to it and started nudging it with his nose and head and then started pawing it just to get it to move.

Since Storm was a puppy, we’ve had him go through a lot of training and socialization, particularly with residents in an assisted living facility, because we were considering him becoming a therapy dog. He is very calm with all sorts of animals gets along with other dogs very well. As a matter of fact, we have a pet rabbit who hops on top of him all the time with no problem. Though he would never even retrieve a ball for me, this fawn was a different story. He sensed that the fawn was in distress and was determined to rescue it.

Mark Freeley is the managing partner at Buttafuoco & Associates.  

A leading national personal injury law firm based on Long Island, NY.

For more information about Mark Freeley call 1-800-669-4878.