Letter to the Editor: 'A Rescue Story'

The following post was submitted to Patch by Kerry Muse. 

After weeks of planning our first overnight boat trip in three years, we left the Selby Bay Marina fuel dock at 9:30 am on Thursday, August 9th heading for Georgetown Marina on the Sassafras River in the upper Chesapeake Bay. With my 12-year-old yellow lab Sundee aboard my 33 foot SeaRay express we cruised out of South River, past Thomas Point Lighthouse into the Chesapeake Bay.

The conditions were good, calm seas, plenty of sunshine and water temperature in the low 80’s. Sundee has been on a boat since she was 3 months old. When I ran the charter boat Darlene II out of Happy Harbor in Deale, she averaged more than 100 trips a year. She can handle herself on a boat. Most of my customers considered her to be the first mate, since she would sit on the engine box and watch every line. As soon as a fish hit, she would be the first to notice and alert the customers. She liked to walk around the SeaRay’s gunnels to the bow.

The Haley Marie was running well that day, about 23 knots as we passed Annapolis. As we approached Hackett's near the main ship channel, we didn’t see Sundee. We slowed down and checked the cabin below and our worst fear became reality. Sundee was not on the boat. We estimated that we had not seen her for at least 5 minutes, or two miles or more. Using my GPS tracker, we followed my course back to Tolly’s three legged buoy. Everything is crazy now, not knowing where she is or even where she fell off. It had to be the gunnel, that’s the only place I could not see her from the helm.

Two years earlier I retired her from hunting due to her arthritis in her back and legs. She is best retriever I have ever owned. On a trip to Jug Bay during goose season, we had a cripple land about two hundred yards away in a mud flat, to shallow to take the boat in. We put Sundee on point and she took off heading for the goose. When she got within 20 yards, the water turned to mud. She chased that goose in foot deep mud for nearly a half mile. Caught it and brought it back to boat. An incredible dog.

Twenty minutes have passed. We are in a panic mood. It was time to call for help. I called the Maryland Marine Police on channel 16. They agreed to send a boat out to help in the search. A few minutes later, I received a call from the Coast Guard offering their assistance. While searching we stopped by several fishing boats from the Tidal Fish group, who also volunteered to help. On channel 73 I was able to reach several charter boat captains from the Upper Bay Captains Association, who agreed to keep an eye out for her. While searching the mouth of the Several River, I observed a 12 boat “Buy Boat” party leaving Annapolis on their way to Chestertown. I spoke with them on Channel 72 and they all agreed to help in the search. We are one hour into the search and then I get a call from a 2nd Coast Guard vessel who has now joined the search from the Bay Bridge. All three patrol boats from DNR and USCG stayed in touch with me for the four hours.

Hoping that she would make it to shore, I worked the shallow water on the shoreline from Bay Ridge to the Bay Bridge. We are getting very frustrated. Nobody has seen her and we just don’t know what to do. We don’t want to think about the obvious. I know the arthritis has to take its toll on her. Each day she was taking six 50-milligram Tramadol, four 75-milligram Rimadyl and four hip and joint tables. I thought she was handling the pain pretty well, but she slowed down considerably. Sleeps most of the day and only going at night to sleep in the driveway.

In my last conversation with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR), we discussed the amount of time it would take for her body to wash ashore. He told me with the bay temperature at 80 degrees, a body should rise in about three days. She was 70 lbs. and he said it should take about a day and half or sometime during the weekend. It was time to go home and cry.

I called my kids and my granddaughter Haley, who picked her out of a litter of 12 yellow labs in a kennel in southwest Virginia 12 years earlier. We had spent a year looking for the right dog. I needed the perfect breed. One side had to be a field champion and the other had to be a show champion. The sire (father) was the show champ and was shipped in from Atlanta, GA. The dame (mother) was the field champ and the pride of the kennel owners in Virginia. We placed a deposit on Sundee three months before she was born. When we arrived at the kennel, all of the litter had been sold. Of the 12, ten were being shipped out the next day to new owners all across the United States sight unseen. We were so fortunate to be able select her in person. To be honest, I could not make a decision, they all looked good. Our five year old granddaughter made the selection and she did it right.

We had been praying all day for her safe return. She had an ID tag on her camo collar. If somebody found her, they would call. It’s now seven hours since she fell overboard. No calls. It was now time to pray for her safe journey to the next level. I could not get her off my mind and decided it was time for a facebook post. I found a picture that retired professional photographer Ronnie Schaffer had taken on the boat a few years earlier with her front paws on the transom watching the fish come in. Everybody knows Sundee and when I made the post, the comments started to come in. It didn’t help at all, just made it worst. A few of the posts prayed for her safe return, including my friend Norm who pointed out a story about her falling off of another boat when she was eight months old. We had been hunting in Herring Bay and while on our way back in, we think she jumped off the boat in Rockhold Creek to chase a swan. At the same time the oil alarm was going off.

We had to take the boat back to Happy Harbor and get some oil. We told one person at the restaurant that we going back out to find Sundee. We are checking the creek and we’re fairly sure where she when over, but after 30 minutes, I’m starting to worry. My cell phone then rings and its Capt. Dick Grimes. He says I got Sundee here. We got back and met the gentleman who found her. He told us he was eating breakfast and she showed up at his back door. She didn’t have ID collar on, but he could tell she was important to someone. He put her in the back of his truck, and drove up to the 7-11 (Deale’s City Hall). He figured if someone lost a dog, someone at the 7-11 would know about it. And sure enough, as soon as he walked in and asked if anybody had lost a dog, someone there told him “yea, a captain at the Happy Harbor lost a yellow lab this morning”.  Not only did this story have a happy ending, it took place in less than an hour. It’s amazing; there are no secrets in a small village.

After a lot of prayers and more crying I went to bed. I’m already awake when I hear my cell phone in the kitchen at 6 am. I run from the bedroom to kitchen (about 60 ft.) and phone stops ringing. The screen says missed call from Easton, MD. I return the call and a gentleman answers. Did you just call me? He says “who is this?” Kerry Muse. “Do you own a yellow lab?” "YES!" “Her name Sundee?” "YES!" “Well, we have her here at the Bay Bridge” "Is she alive?" “Yes, but she’s wet, hungry and tired "Oh God, thank you!"

I don’t know if we broke any speed limit laws, but I was at the Bay Bridge Construction trailer within 30 minutes. It had just started to rain, but we didn’t care. It was a great reunion. She was in the trailer with the crew of about six guys. She had already drunk a pail of water and ate three sandwiches from the crew’s lunch. The crew leader, who called me, was part of the search team the day before after he heard the search alert on the VHS Radio. He told me she showed up at the trailer, only a few feet from the bay, just before 6 am. He knew who she was right away. She was still wet, 20 hours after falling off the boat.

Her condition was good. Her front paws were bruised and scratched. We believe that from where she went over, she could not see land from her elevation, but most likely she saw the bridge and headed in that direction. Her scratched paws indicated that she tried to climb the concrete pilings. It must have been a terrible night for her. It took about 3 days to recover. She didn’t move for hours at a time. The drama started to show on her face with dark spots showing up around her eyes. We had the vet check her out and she was remarkably in great shape. It’s been a month since the incident and her face is slowly getting back to normal. She also took a boat trip with us recently and did very well. She stayed within two feet of my feet during the whole trip. She’s also been swimming in the Bay and the Ocean. I’m strongly considering bringing her out of retirement when the waterfowl season begins in November. Again thanks to all who prayed and help.