Bryant Fritz had planned for nothing more than a quiet afternoon of fishing — the kind of peaceful escape a middle-school science teacher grabs whenever he can. The November air was cold, the lake was still, and the world felt calm.
Until he saw something that made his stomach drop.
Floating near the edge of Kaufman Lake was a dog crate.
Not empty.
Not abandoned.
A tiny head — black and white, trembling, barely above the surface — was fighting to stay alive.
A puppy was drowning.
Bryant froze for half a second, trying to make sense of the scene. Then instinct took over. He kicked off his shoes, peeled off his outer layers, and waded straight into the icy water without hesitation. The wind was brutal, the lake biting cold, but none of it mattered.
The only thing he could think was:
“She’s going under.”
He pushed through the freezing water — 15… 20 yards — until he reached the crate. The puppy was pressed against the top corner, eyes squeezed shut, shivering so violently it rattled the crate. Her paws were raw. Her back was bleeding. She was exhausted… but she was still fighting.
Just like the little fish in Finding Nemo.
Bryant lifted the crate out of the water and pulled her into his arms. She weighed maybe 15 pounds — all bones, fear, and pure willpower. On the shore, he realized how bad things were: torn paws, missing fur, open wounds, body ice-cold to the touch.
She was alive, but only barely.
Bryant sprinted to his car, wrapped her in a blanket, and called ahead to the University of Illinois Veterinary Teaching Hospital. The emergency team was waiting when he arrived. They whisked the puppy away, warming her, treating her hypothermia, cleaning her wounds, and giving her pain medication and antibiotics.
Against all odds… she survived the night.
The vets said her recovery would take time. Her body was battered, her paws damaged, her temperature dangerously low — but she was responding. She wasn’t giving up.
And somewhere in the chaos, between the forms he had to fill out and the updates from the veterinary team, Bryant felt something shift in his chest.
He didn’t know this puppy. But he couldn’t imagine handing her off and walking away.
By the time he stepped out of the hospital, he already knew:
“I want this dog in my life.”
He called his girlfriend, Krystal, who agreed without hesitation. They even knew her name:
Dory.
Because just like the Pixar character…
“She didn’t quit in that water.”
Dory is now under the care of Animal Control and receiving continued treatment — and Bryant is hoping, waiting, and praying that he’ll be allowed to adopt her the moment she’s ready.
He didn’t go fishing that day.
But he did save a life.
And he may have found a new one to share his own.
