Teen Rescues Dog

A 13-year-old Sag Harbor boy, Jamie Gregor, jumped into the freezing waters of Northwest Creek Tuesday morning to rescue his dog, Lucy.

Jamie, his mother, Marianne Gregor, and Lucy were taking a walk at Barcelona Neck, a daily activity before Jamie's home-schooling lessons, when Lucy spotted two other dogs, got free of her lead, and ran after the other canines.

Running across the frozen waters of Northwest Creek, Lucy fell through the ice halfway across the inlet and began struggling to get out of the water. When it became clear that Lucy could not get out by herself, Ms. Gregor took off in her car to get help while Jamie stayed behind to continue his encouraging calls to Lucy.

Tearful Mom

Ms. Gregor raced to the Sag Harbor Golf Club, where Val Miller, a member of the club's board of directors, said he "just happened to be there" to do some work. He made the appropriate phone calls for emergency help and then followed her back to the creek.

"I was in tears," Ms. Gregor said. Despite her warnings to her son not to go after Lucy, she said she feared he would.

"When I got back to the beach I couldn't find both of them," she recalled. Then she heard her son yelling from the other side of the creek that he had fallen through the ice too.

Apparently Jamie had decided to crawl across the ice to pull Lucy out but fell through himself. He managed to pull himself out of the water and crawl back to land. He then tried another rescue effort, this time succeeding.

"He must have been in there for 15 minutes," said Ms. Gregor yesterday as both son and dog were recovering.

"He said he didn't think about anything but saving his dog," Ms. Gregor said.

Suffering from hypothermia, Jamie was taken by ambulance to Southamp ton Hospital, where he was kept for observation about an hour and a half before being released. Lucy was taken to the East Hampton Town dog pound, where she recovered in a warming room.

Lucy, 4, a retriever, German shepherd, and Border collie mix, was an abused dog before being adopted by the Gregors from the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons several years ago.