Nick White and Brent Gammon of White's Marina in Norway push a row boat across Lake Pennesseewassee on Thursday after pulling a Rottweiler mix from the frigid waters.

White's Marina owner Mike White reassures a shivering dog rescued from Lake Pennesseewassee in Norway by his son, Nick White, right, and employee Brent Gammon on Thursday afternoon.

A Rottweiler mix dog stands in White's Marina in Norway on Thursday after employees rescued it from Lake Pennesseewassee. The dog was turned over to an animal control officer because the owner is unknown.

NORWAY — Two men pushed a rowboat more than 500 feet across Lake Pennesseewassee before breaking through the icy surface to rescue a dog from freezing waters Thursday afternoon.

“If you could have seen that dog's face: You can't stop,” said Nick White, who along with Brent Gammon, rescued the submerged dog in an area behind White's Marina on Lake Road. The Norway men work at the marina.

The dog, believed to be a Rottweiler mix, was spotted walking on the ice shortly before 2 p.m. when suddenly, he broke through, White said.

“His paws were on the edge of the ice," White said. "He was trying to get himself up on the edge.”

He and Gammon grabbed an aluminum rowboat and pushed it across the lake before the ice began to break up about 40 to 50 feet from the dog. Using their paddles, the pair stuck them in the ice and pulled the boat toward the dog, in water estimated to be 4 to 8 feet deep and about 32 degrees.

“That's when I started to worry that we wouldn't make it," White said.  "Ten more minutes and he would have been in trouble.”

“Brent grabbed a-hold of him,” White said. The rescue became a tricky balancing act when he had to keep the boat upright using his paddle while Gammon pulled the dog over and into the boat, White said.

“He was pretty motionless. There was no noise," White said.  "He was just staring at us and he was shivering. He probably wouldn't have lasted much longer.”

White, who said he was sweating from the effort and not at all cold, put his jacket over the dog's back to keep it warm as it stood in the bow of the boat for the ride back to shore where firefighters and police were waiting.

Both men were exhausted, but otherwise fine.

“That was worse than a marathon,” Gammon said.

Witnesses say the dog may have walked out on the ice from a cove where summer camps and one year-round home are located.

Mike White, owner of White's Marina, said he was looking out at the lake shortly after 2 p.m. when he spotted the dog walking across the ice.

His wife, Randa White, walked the dog from the boat into the warm building where she took care of him until animal control officer Robert Larrabee arrived.

The dog was wearing only a collar and no identification. As of Wednesday night, its owner had not been found.

“We've seen moose (on the icy lake) before," Nick White said. "I wouldn't bother to help a moose. That would kill me."

ldixon@sunjournal.com

NORWAY — A sweet deed deserves a sweet reward.

That's why Bruce Rowe delivered maple syrup and maple butter to a pair of men who rescued Rowe's dog, Micah, from Lake Pennesseewassee on Thursday.

Rowe, of Otisfield, on Friday handed the Maine-made sweetness to Brent Gammon and Nick White at their place of work and from where they launched their rescue, White's Marina in Norway.

"I wanted to thank them somehow," Rowe said. "I'm not a rich man, but I wanted to give them something."

Gammon and White, along with marina owner Mike White had watched the dog, a male Rottweiler mix, wandering on Lake Pennesseewassee and saw him break through thin ice near a channel in the lake where the current keeps the ice from freezing thick.

Seeing the dog was in trouble, Gammon and Nick White pushed an aluminum rowboat across about 500 feet of ice until it started to break up. They climbed aboard and with oars pushed the boat through ice and water to the dog.

Gammon was able to fish out the dog, and once back on solid ice, the men pushed the boat, with the dog riding in the bow, back to shore and safety.

Gammon later learned the dog had been lost for about a week. He had run off while Rowe was working at a job in Oxford. Rowe had been searching for his dog for more than a week, Gammon said Friday.

He learned the news from his mother, who informed him that he was distantly related to Rowe.

"He's my mother's aunt's brother," Gammon said. "So in a very distant way, we are related."

The local animal control officer, Robert Larrabee, said Friday that he had a pretty good idea who the dog's owner was right away.

"I called the owner up and immediately he came flying up," said Larrabee, who took the dog from White's Marina to a kennel in Oxford following the rescue Thursday.

Larrabee said the owner happened to call him over the weekend to report his dog was missing. "I assumed it was the dog," Larrabee said when he saw the rescued dog was part Rottweiler.

"(Rowe) was out the door before I hung up the phone," Larrabee said. "They had a beautiful reunion. The guy had been looking high and low for him. It's strange how things happen sometimes."

Rowe was more than happy to have his dog back. "He's my buddy," Rowe said. "He goes everywhere with me."

The dog was near motionless when Gammon plucked him from the icy water, Nick White said Thursday after the rescue.

"Usually, it's a sad story for the animal," Mike White said Friday. That was not the case for Micah, he said. "He's got a good home and an owner, so that's a happy ending for him."

Staff writer Leslie Dixon contributed to this report.

sthistle@sunjournal.com