Brave Welsh Sheepdog Saves Three Ewes From Rising Floodwaters

Thought Question: What qualities do you believe make a hero? Describe someone from your life who you consider to be a hero.

Patsy the sheepdog always comes to the aid of ewe.

The northern Welsh canine proved it last week when torrential flooding from Storm Babet swept across the UK. In Flintshire, three sheep became stranded on a strip of farmland about to be submerged by rising waters.

Farmer Llyr Derwydd went to check on his sheep Friday afternoon when he noticed three of his ewes “stranded on this little spot on the field,” he told the PA news agency. The sheep were “cut off basically by the water," he said.

So Derwydd took a chance. He sent Patsy charging across the water to rescue the farm animals. He didn't know how deep the new lake in his field had become. At first, Patsy ran. Then, she had to swim. The sheep saw Patsy coming and quickly started to scramble along a patch of dry land. They ran along a fence and toward a shallow crossing in the broad water.

The three sheep made it across safely with Patsy in hot pursuit.

“I knew she was quite a good swimmer otherwise I wouldn’t have done that, but I was quite surprised that she didn’t have any issues,” Derwydd told PA news. “(It) saved me getting wet and getting into a dangerous situation and saved the sheep so it was perfect.”

Derwydd’s video of the rescue went viral. It prompted one social media user to urge the farmer to give Patsy a plump, juicy T-bone steak for her actions. Derwydd replied that the only reward needed for his hero dog is a head-pat, praise, and a second dog biscuit.

Good girl.

Photo from Unsplash courtesy of Veronica White.