![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SUT-L-Dog-Rescue-05.jpg\")
Sadie returns to land after being rescued by San Diego lifeguards Sunday. (San Diego Fire-Rescue Department)<\/p>\nThe black Labrador retriever-mix probably just wanted to go for a little ocean swim.<\/p>\n
Sadie slipped out of the home where her parents were watching a football game last week and took a dip. But she was quickly swept up in a rip current that took her a half-mile out to sea, and had lifeguards and her parents wondering if she\u2019d come back alive.<\/p>\n
When Alexis Barcellos and Brandon Valdez noticed the 5-year-old pup missing, they tracked her via the AirTag on her collar and set off down the coast to find her, officials said.<\/p>\n
Sadie returns to land after being rescued by San Diego lifeguards Sunday. (San Diego Fire-Rescue Department)<\/p>\n
Nearly 2 miles away from the home, surfers alerted Lifeguard Tower 2 in Ocean Beach to a dog that had been swept into a rip current near the jetty. Lifeguard units and a U.S. Coast Guard small boat searched the area after the dog disappeared into the channel, according to a statement by the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.<\/p>\n
Lifeguards Garret Smerdon and Jack Alldredge launched a personal watercraft and went beyond the surf break to find the dog, they said in a video included with the statement.<\/p>\n
But after some time, there were no sightings,<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were looking for an hour,\u201d Alldredge said in the video. \u201cAnd (Smerdon) said we\u2019re going to look for about 10 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two said they kept up their search, knowing that Sadie was likely still alive. Lab retrievers are known to be water dogs.<\/p>\n
But, as the 10 minutes expired, the search was called off. And the two began to head in.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s when Alldredge thought he saw something swimming in the water, about a half-mile off South Mission Beach.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got closer and closer, and we realized it was her, and we were pretty excited,\u201d Alldredge said.<\/p>\n
![\"This](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SUT-L-Sadie-Rescue-01.jpg\")
This photo released by San Diego Fire-Rescue shows owner Alexis reuniting with Sadie, a black Labrador retriever-mix. (San Diego Fire-Rescue Department via AP)<\/p>\n
Barcellos, one of Sadie\u2019s owners, recalled that just as the search was being called off, she heard the call on the radio that they had found the dog.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we kind of just held our breath, and they were like, and the dog is alive,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd we kind of just started crying right away.\u201d<\/p>\n
The video shows the lifeguards arriving back to a dock holding the dog. Sadie was wrapped in a blanket, wet and seemingly scared, but alive.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just really wanted a happy ending, and we\u2019re glad that Sadie got to go back home and survived this pretty traumatic event,\u201d said Smerdon.<\/p>\n
Sadie\u2019s paws and nails were badly damaged from trying to climb onto the jetty, so Barcellos and Valdez had to carry her around for about a week, Barcellos said Thursday. But she has been in great spirits, and this week Sadie made her first trip to the pet store since the rescue to pick out a treat and took her first 1.5-mile walk.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are just beyond grateful she is home safe with us,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The black Labrador retriever-mix probably just wanted to go for a little ocean swim. Sadie slipped out of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":428879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,5295,746,1370,728,22863,50,3549,3550,7264,7289,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-428878","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","12":"tag-environment","13":"tag-latest-headlines","14":"tag-local-news","15":"tag-mission-beach","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-san-diego","18":"tag-san-diego-county","19":"tag-sandiego","20":"tag-top-stories-sdut","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115672909438256958","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}