Dogs and delivery people aren’t usually known to get along well. We’ve all seen our pets shout at the mailman thinking he’s a trespasser or chase after a FedEx truck down the street.

But despite that stereotype, oftentimes pets and delivery men will get along great. Many mail carriers actually love dogs and care for the ones they see along their routes.

But one UPS driver really went above and beyond, stopping his deliveries to save a dog drowning in icy cold waters.

Ryan Arens is a UPS driver from Bozeman, Montana. But while he was on the job last December shortly before Christmas, Ryan made an unforgettable delivery that wasn’t on his schedule.

Driving past an icy pond to deliver a package, Ryan heard the frantic screaming of a dog.

“This dog was screaming and crying and going crazy,” he told the GreatFallsTribune. “I could see the dog trapped about 10-15 feet off of shore, with ice all around it.”

He stopped what he was doing and went to save the poor animal. “I know I had to get her. Help wasn’t going to make it.”

Ryan arrived on the scene and found an older man unsuccessfully trying to reach the dog with a rowboat. He decided to use the boat to get onto the ice.

“I slid the boat out onto the ice, using it to distribute my weight,” Ryan said. “I shimmed out to where the ice was thin.”

But he crashed through the ice into the freezing water, and decided to just swim for the dog instead.

The rescue was successful, and not a moment too soon: “She was starting to go under,” he told the Great Falls Tribune.

“I didn’t think—I just knew what I had to do,” Ryan told PETA. “The veterinarian said that 2 degrees colder and Sadie would have gone into cardiac arrest. The timing was perfect.”

He took the dog back to the rowboat man’s house, where Ryan and the dog warmed up with a hot shower.

Ryan was quickly hailed as a hero when the story broke. PETA honored him with a Compassionate Action Award for his bravery.

But Ryan didn’t see himself as a hero… just an animal lover doing what anyone would do in his shoes.

“I personally feel that a majority of my coworkers and people that I surround myself with would have done the same thing I did if the situation presented itself to them,” he wrote on Facebook. “I am glad I did what I did no matter the danger.”

Ryan loves dogs—he owns a 15-year-old Malamute, so he was glad to help a dog in need. “Animals are my weakness,” he told Great Falls Tribune. “It was the highlight of my 14-year UPS career.”

He also got to reunite with the dog he saved, who is named Sadie. He was glad to see she was doing okay and still full of life.

“This dog had a whole lot of life left in her, and I’m really glad I was able to act when I did,” Ryan said. “She’s a sweetheart.”

Let’s thank this brave UPS driver for saving this dog’s life and braving the freezing cold water!

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Not all heroes wear capes. This hero wears a brown uniform and drives a big brown truck. Ryan Arens, a UPS delivery driver, was making deliveries along his route last month when he heard a dog in distress and leapt into action.

“I heard a dog just screaming bloody murder. It sounded like she was in a bad, bad place.” (KRTV.com)

“I could see the dog trapped about 10 to 15 feet off of shore, with ice all around it.” (greatfallstribune.com)

On a nearby pond was Sadie, a two-and-a-half-year-old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon who had wandered onto the ice and fallen through. She was clinging with everything she had trying not to go under, but she was losing the fight.

Once Arens saw what was happening, he dropped everything and rushed to help. He got assistance from a man named Mike who was nearby in a rowboat, but the boat couldn’t make it out to Sadie.

“I stripped to my boxers and got the guy out of the boat. Then I slid the boat out onto the ice, using it to distribute my weight. I shimmed out to where the ice was thin. She was starting to go under.”

“So the boat stayed on the ice. I’m already in the water, I might as well swim. So I swam out to Sadie, grabbed her collar, swam back to the ice, hoisted her up — I didn’t know how I even did that because I couldn’t touch the bottom. It’s sixteen feet deep.”

The man with the boat lived nearby and happened to be a retired veterinarian. He looked Sadie over, ran a warm shower and held her in it. A thermometer told them that had Sadie’s temperature dropped any lower she could have gone into cardiac arrest.

When animal control arrived they took Sadie and were able to reunite her with her person. She was back home in almost no time. Arens put his uniform on and finished his route as though it had all been a part of a day’s work.

Sadie’s life had been saved, and later, she was able to thank Arens. As luck would have it, he had a package to deliver to Sadie’s house the next day!

“I had a delivery for the guy with the dog. He said ‘Hey, do you want to meet Sadie?’ I said I’d love to. He opened up the door and she came running up to me. We had a reuniting. It was pretty cool.”

“She was freaking out, and when he let her out, she ran to me. She must have remembered me. It sure made me feel good.”

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