Young rescuers left with quite a fishing story

SANTA ROSA — Three Santa Rosa boys decided to go fishing on Oct. 5, since there was no school. Little did they know they would be helping fish a woman out of the pond, too.

Joaquin Estupinan, Solomon Ross and Estevan Romero — all seventh-graders at Santa Rosa Middle School — met up at Park Lake about midday that Friday with their rods and reels. About the time Joaquin had caught the first fish of the afternoon, they heard a woman nearby crying for help.

Anthony Salas, city dispatch supervisor who responded to the incident, said the woman’s black lab had entered the water and the woman, who was unsure the dog could swim out, went in to retrieve her pet.

But, while the dog was able to get out, the woman got stuck in the deep mud at the bottom of the pond.

That’s when the unidentified, middle-age woman — apparently a tourist traveling through town — cried for help and the boys came running.

“She was standing up, but she was stuck. We tried to pull her out, but we couldn’t, so we called 911,” Joaquin said.

Using a rope and a pallet, an officer brought to the scene, they were able to get her out, Salas said.

Meanwhile, the boys said they worked to calm down the dog.

In the end, dog and woman were safe and sound — and the appreciative woman gave the boys $20 for their Good Samaritan deed, took a photo of them and, after recovering from the ordeal, drove away.

The boys felt good about their assistance — and the experience itself.

“We were kind of talking afterward,” said Solomon, “and we thought, what a fishing story!”