HARDIN CO., Ill. - Not only is Hardin County Sheriff JT Fricker coming to be known as "the crim whisperer" after peacefully bringing in White County Jail escapee Johnny Tipton this weekend, but one of his deputies can now be called "the dog rescuer."
Deputy Donnie Vaughn, who shot to fame a couple of months back when his squad was rammed by a guy who lead authorities on a three-state chase and, even though injured, he attended to the chase anyway, is being credited for saving the life of the lovely furry critter in the below photo:
The furry critter on the left; not the one on the right. The one on the right is the Sheriff; at his feet is Bailey the River Dog.
We're told it went down like this: The sheriff's wife Jessica, who works in dispatch, received a call yesterday evening (Tuesday, July 10) from a woman who reported that there was a dog in the river at Cave-in-Rock and it appeared to be on the verge of drowning, going under occasionally as it was apparently trying to swim. The dog's location was reported to be a little bit upriver from the ferry at Cave, which is situated on the Ohio.
So Vaughn responded to the scene, saw the dog out in the water, and hastened over to the ferry, which was coming in from Kentucky and which was equipped with plenty of flotation rings. Vaughn grabbed one off the boat, jumped in the water, and swam out to the dog.
Using a belt as a collar, Vaughn managed to keep himself afloat and secure the dog before it went under a final time, and got the pupper right up to the bank and out of the Ohio. Cave Fire Chief Mitchell Conkle was present and helped the two out, and they and others cleaned up the dog and calmed it down.
Apparently the dog, whose age is estimated to be about a year or so (and so really IS a "pup"), was accustomed to humans and was extremely friendly, and so he was so clean and calm that he spent the rest of the evening with Vaughn on his shift, riding the county patrol with Vaughn til he was off-shift at 10 p.m. At that point, Bailey - as the dog somehow got named following his rescue - came back to the station, where he was spoiled for the rest of the night by the evening shift, and further spoiled today by day shift as well as by the folks in the courthouse, as he was toted over there to meet them all.
The gal who called in the drowning dog, as it turned out, had told Fricker that if no one claimed the pup, she'd take him. She was down from Joliet, Fricker said, and as of this evening, no one had claimed Bailey, so it appears he'll have a new home...thanks to the woman from Joliet, and to a brave "old school" deputy who had no compunction against jumping in the water toting a life-ring and swimming against the current to rescue him.