MUSKEGON, MI – If dogs could talk, Max the mutt, rescued in the dark of night off an ice floe in the middle of Muskegon Lake, would have quite a tale to tell.

It’s a mystery how the dog missing from Muskegon for as many as 36 hours ended up in the predicament he was in. But his rescue is a heart-warming story of man’s devotion to his best friend.

Returning from a 20-hour trip to Milwaukee on Monday, March 2, the guys on board the tugboat Barbara Andrie couldn’t believe their eyes when they saw the lone pup adrift in the middle of the lake.

They had just entered through the channel from Lake Michigan when the dog stranded on a small ice floe suddenly appeared in their path, said the boat’s captain that night, Dave Wellington.

It was around 8:30 p.m. and pitch dark when the dog suddenly appeared in the boat’s spotlight.

“I’ve got to say, my heart almost sank,” Wellington said. “I almost thought I ran him over at first.”

But when he looked back, there was the dog, still on its precarious floating perch.

The crew on board had been working since 6 that morning and looking forward to getting to dock at Andrie in Muskegon and calling it a night.

But first, they had a rescue operation to conduct.

“Everybody was like, ‘No question, we’re going to get him,’” Wellington said. “We weren’t going to leave him out there. There’s no way. We were going to get him.”

He slowly backed the 125-foot tug up, careful not to disturb the delicate ice surrounding the stranded dog.

“He was way out there, way out in the middle of the lake,” said deck hand Craig Benedetti. “I’m not sure he would have made it through the night.”

When they were close enough, crew members used a pole with a hook on the end to carefully snag the ice floe and pull it toward the tug. At one point, the dog slipped off the ice into the water, but was able to get back on his perch, Wellington said.

“You could tell he was cold and afraid and didn’t know where to go and what to do,” Wellington said. “He was on his little piece of ice that he wasn’t giving up, which, truthfully, was the best thing to do.”

It took about 20 minutes, but finally the crew was able to slip a rope over the pup’s neck and pull it to safety with a little lunch meat as enticement.

“It was a very nice dog,” said Matt Babbitt, another captain on board the tug that night. “It was very happy. It was glad to be on board with us.”

The crew, which also included Chief Engineer Danny Kuiper, Assistant Engineer Tyler Gagnon and deckhand Jeff Wever, brought the pup blankets and a little more lunch meat, Babbitt said.

“It would sit and shake and everything,” he said. “It was a good little dog.”

His name was Max, the crew discovered by looking at the dog’s tag, which also had his owner’s phone number.

“I believe they were kind of surprised,” Wellington said when Max’s owners learned of the rescue.

A Facebook post from the owner indicated Max had gone missing the previous day, Sunday, March 1, between 8:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. He last was seen near Muskegon Catholic Central schools, reported the owner, whom MLive was unable to reach.

Benedetti said another boat captain had reported seeing the dog around 4 a.m. Monday out on the ice, which at that time was more solid than by the time the Barbara Andrie crew got to him.

The crew posed for a few photos with Max before Wellington and Benedetti delivered him to his grateful owners.

“When we told them where we found Max, the daughter said, ‘When we take him to the beach, Max doesn’t even like the water,’” Wellington said.

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