Year Old Dog Rescue Video Still Warming, Charming Hearts

A YouTube video uploaded more than a year ago is gaining popularity because, well, I guess I'm not the only one out there who is a sucker for nice dog rescue stories.

Ove Karlsen reaches shore with a St. Bernard he'd just
rescued from a frigid Norwegian lake, in this
still from a YouTube video.  

The video in question takes us to a frigid, half frozen Norwegian lake in January, 2013. A woman named Stine Karlsen came home and told her husband, Ove, she saw a dog trapped in a lake.

It looked like it might be impossible to get the St. Bernard out before he died in the cold water.

But Ove had other ideas. He's a North Sea oil platform worker, and had a handy dandy cold water wetsuit in the house. So he put it on, went down to the lake, with a rope and went out into the frigid water and retreived our cold, exhausted struggling St. Bernard.

The St. Bernard is fine. He was cold and exhausted after the rescue, but a trip to the veterinarian fixed that up in a jiffy. At last report the dog was continuing his happy life with his grateful owners.

Ove Karlsen said he's a bit stunned by a flood of media interview requests he's gotten lately as more people have discovered the YouTube video. "I did what I had to do and actually acted on impulse," he said.

We all appreciate Karlsen's impulsiveness.

Here's the rescue video: