Something told Debi Konrad she needed to go to her mom’s house March 25. She couldn’t put her finger on
it, but somehow, some way, she knew – something was very wrong.
"It’s hard to describe," she said. "Something was pulling me that way."
Around 5 p.m. that cold Tuesday night, Konrad pulled her truck into her mom’s driveway in Weston. Her mom
had some eggs for her and suggested Konrad swing by to pick them up on the way home.
Konrad wasn’t looking forward to picking up the eggs. She was tired and had a long day at work – but
something stopped her from driving past.
"I went over there and noticed something in the pond. At first, I thought it was geese," she
said. "And then I realized, no it’s not – it’s Charlie."
Charlie, Konrad’s brown and black 75-pound rescued boxer, had been staying at her mother’s house until
she found him a permanent home.
Now, Konrad saw, the dog had fallen through the ice into 16-feet deep pond.
She slammed the truck in park and got out.
"I was calling for him and clapping my hands," she said. "He was struggling. He looked
like he had had enough. You could tell he was at that point."
And Konrad was at the same point – she knew if she didn’t do something, the sweet dog she and her fiancé
Josh Bennett rescued five months ago would drown.
The closest neighbor couldn’t hear Konrad’s frantic screams for help, so she called Bennett, who was at
their house 10 minutes away with Konrad’s daughter, Kaylee Bishop, 7.
"She’s hysterical and I can’t really hear what she’s saying," Bennett said. "I can just
hear her screaming ‘Charlie fell in the pond, Charlie fell in the pond.’"
Bennett hung up the phone, grabbed Kaylee and sped toward his fianc?©e.
Meanwhile, Charlie was getting weaker.
"I saw he went underwater. I went across the ice and grabbed his leg. He had no strength,"
Konrad said. "When I went to pull him up, the ice broke."
Konrad fell in.
The icy water felt like thousands of needles stabbing her all at once. Gasping for breath, Konrad tried
to grab Charlie and tow him to the pond’s edge.
"I thought we were going to drown out here," she said. "I was hysterical. I think I was in
shock."
Along with the freezing water, thoughts of Bennett, her daughter and Charlie flooded Konrad’s mind. She
wasn’t going to let it end this way. After all, she’d rescued Charlie once before.
With the strength she didn’t know she had, she pulled them both out of the pond.
"We got back into the truck and cranked the heat way up," she said. "I started thinking
‘Oh my God. What if I wouldn’t have called Josh and we were still in the water?’"
Just as those scary thoughts started to surface, Bennett pulled in.
"She had Charlie in the truck and she was crying," he said. "We got them inside and warmed
them up."
Konrad’s young daughter held it together until after her mom dried off and calmed down.
"Kaylee just lost it," Konrad said. "I think it just dawned on her what could’ve
happened."
And what really happened, no one is quite sure.
The couple thinks after Konrad’s mother left the house to visit a friend in a nearby hospital, Charlie
had chased the truck and accidentally fell into the pond.
Because the couple could only keep Charlie for a little bit because of living arrangements, Konrad was
happy to find another family who connected with the dog.
"A man named Mark Johnson saw Charlie’s picture and our post on Facebook and he absolutely fell in
love," she said. "He seems pretty happy in his new home."
The Bennett-Konrad family still keeps in touch with their canine friend. As for Konrad, she’s glad she
stopped by her mom’s that cold Tuesday night after work.
"Helping animals is kind of what I do. It’s in my nature," she said. "If it happened
again, I wouldn’t hesitate. I’d jump back in."