Chelsea Teen Rescues Dog Stranded In Middle Of Grand Lake

A Chelsea teenager saved the life of a dog found floating in the middle of Grand Lake over the weekend.

It happened on the afternoon of Saturday, June 20, 2015.

Abby Schatz, 18, said her family had just finished tubing and they were heading to the dock when her father saw something strange in the water.

"Man, I thought I just saw a dog swimming. Oh, my goodness, that IS a dog," he told his family. When they circled back to help, Abby jumped on the tube then grabbed the dog, just in time.

"As soon as I grabbed it, it was starting to sink," she said.

As the family headed to its dock with the dog on board, she texted a photo to a friend of her father, Rusty Fleming, Executive Director of the Grand Lake Chamber of Commerce. Fleming posted the photo on his Facebook page and within 10 minutes learned the dog had been reunited with its owner.

"We had been calling it Lucky," Schatz said, but her family learned his real name is Buddy Love.

Broken Arrow realtor Jeff Thompson owns the dog. He posted a note of thanks on Fleming's Facebook page:

"Thank You! All of Grand Lake of the Cherokee's Community and fellow boaters and especially the family that rescued Buddy Love from the Lake. Buddy loves to chase the Sea Doos that jump the very large wake our boat produces. We did not realize we lost him until we tied up in Leon's. Immediately we went back to Dripping Springs to locate him. A very caring family plucked him from the lake and brought him to their dock where we found him. What a great thing Social Media can do. Thank You all for your prayers, concern and efforts. Especially to Buddy's new women friends and the Grand River Dam Authority making the efforts to reunite Our Buddy Love."

Abby said the dog was back with Thompson within an hour and that Thompson couldn't stop thanking her family. 

He told the family the dog had grown up on the boat and had never disappeared like that before. He came back Sunday to thank the Schatz family again. 

Schatz thinks there might have been a bigger force at work, because of the timing of her dad's sighting of the dog in the water. "We're pretty sure it was a God thing."