This story was originally published on December 4 at 11:15 a.m. Here is the updated version, happy ending included.
A six-month old, 50 pound Leonberger Bernese mix named Bear was last seen on Saturday afternoon entering the Hudson River near West 110th Street.
Bear’s owner, Ellen, says patrol boats were out looking for him but had no luck, and that he had made it three-quarters of the way to New Jersey.
Ellen says Bear is very friendly but probably terrified. “I’m hoping for the best but that may be that he got to NJ and someone grabbed him and he’s with a good home now.”
UPDATE (December 6): On Tuesday morning, we received a text from Ellen who told us Bear was found in Edgewater, NJ. The person who found him took him to a vet and luckily he was microchipped. Ellen was contacted and reunited with Bear.
ALSO: To those who were understandably confused by this story, please check the explanation from Margaret in the comments section.
… ALSO:
This can’t be the whole story, Ellen let Bear get close enough to the water without a leash to swim away; he has no tag or collar with her contact info, and isn’t microchipped? And she’s hoping he made to the NJ side, and didn’t go look for him there?
Lauren, here’s the whole story.
Bear’s owner (Ellen) was taking him to the pet store to get a new collar when he broke free. Ellen got him less than two weeks ago. He is new to the city, new to his name, young, and scared.
He ran past my husband at 80th & Riverside. My husband started following the puppy into the park while I helped Ellen. Bear was FAST, and again, terrified, and didn’t respond to his name. My husband followed him at a distance for over 20 blocks, along the bike path, across the highway, in bushes, you name it. By 100th St. Bear was over 1/4 mile ahead of my husband. It was a gloomy, rainy day and there were very few people walking or biking who could help. My husband lost sight of Bear, and when he found him again he was trying to swim in the river.
The owner and I had both tried 911 but were told it was not an emergency, until we called because Bear was in the water. At that point emergency boats were dispatched. My husband lost sight of Bear (brown puppy swimming in choppy brown river water…) before the boats arrived.
So to answer your questions:
Ellen did not let Bear get close to the water. Ellen was nowhere near the water with Bear.
Bear’s collar broke. Bear is indeed microchipped, but I’m not sure if it was registered to Ellen.
Thanks for the clarification and for the efforts you and your husband made to help the dog and his owner!
Thanks. And the story in Times supplied the answer to my last question: She didn’t go to NJ to look for him either; rather:
“She went home and hoped for the best. “I told him, ‘Bear went swimming,’” she said, thinking she would have to find a new dog for Zack. “The old goldfish switch,” she said.”
What kind of statement is that to make regarding a dog that was just adopted with the supposed intent to care for and protect him for the next 8-14 years? I’m not sure what the “old goldfish switch” is, but a dog is not a fungible throwaway item you can replace when “he goes swimming” in the Hudson. This just strikes me as callous and bizarre.
You know New Jersey is, like, a whole entire state, right?
Surely you must have something in your life more important to focus on than this woman.
She doesnt, and dont call her Shirley…
I’m just heartsick for Bear and Ellen . . . I hope, hope and pray Bear made it across safely. I’m sure you contacted the NJ police (Bergen County), veterinarians, pet shops and animals rescue groups on the NJ side. Do you know which way the currents were flowing that day into evening? Currents could have caused him to float further down the river. You need a local newspaper or TV station in NJ to report this.
what a nightmare. i pray he is found safely. i cannot imagine the pain ellen is probably feeling.
Miracles happen – Bear was found under a park bench in NJ in Edgewater and is on his way home this morning!!!! (My 6 year old berner and I got to meet the little trooper this morning). What a sweetheart!!!
Bear was pulled from the River early this morning by the Edgewater NJ Volunteer Fire Department. Dog was microchipped and reunited with owner.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=524472386387358&id=100064738027176&mibextid=Nif5oz
Thanks for the link! We’ve added it to the post above.
What a wonderful update! So happy to hear!
I am so happy to read the wonderful outcome of this story. It so upset me when I read what happened.
Very happy news. Thank you Edgewater FD!
This story is hinky ( as they say in NJ)
First Name: Bear
Last Name: Phelps
Was the dog “pulled from the river” or “found under a park bench?”
Here is the New York Times’ accounting of Bear’s journey. So glad he is back with his parents!
The dog who swam to New Jersey
Ellen Wolpin
This is no shaggy dog story. The dog in question, whose name is Bear, is not shaggy. Smelly, maybe, but who wouldn’t be smelly after a swim across the Hudson River and a few days of roughing it in New Jersey?
Bear had lived with Ellen Wolpin and her 20-year-old son Zack for four days when, on Saturday afternoon, she took him out for a walk. He stopped in the middle of the street, because of course that’s where a dog would stop. She grabbed his collar, holding him so he couldn’t bound in front of a car on West End Avenue in the West 80s.
But he took off.
Someone tried to nab him, but he zipped down a side street and into Riverside Park, where someone else took up the chase. Later the someone else would tell Wolpin that he was not a runner, was not in shape for the 30-block marathon that unfolded and that “some guy on a bike ended up helping him.”
But Bear, a Leonberger-Bernese mix, eluded them, jumping into the Hudson River around 110th Street. She called 911. Patrol boats were dispatched, she said, but Bear was gone. She went home and hoped for the best. “I told him, ‘Bear went swimming,’” she said, thinking she would have to find a new dog for Zack. “The old goldfish switch,” she said.
She posted a missing-dog message on Facebook; the website Ilovetheupperwestside.com wrote about Bear’s disappearance. Days passed.
Chief Joseph Chevalier of the Edgewater Fire Department said someone at Independence Harbor, a riverfront apartment complex, called the police about a dog in distress around 1 a.m. Tuesday. He said a boat went out. “The tide was low, and it was difficult trying to get where we were trying to get,” he said. Some divers went under a pier. “They saw the dog,” he said, “but the dog kept running. It was scared, obviously.”
They waited, and as the tide rose, two firefighters in wet suits went under the pier again. They pulled Bear into the boat, though “he was trying to get on the boat himself, from what my guys were telling me.”
They turned Bear over to the police, who took him to an animal hospital to be checked out. He did not have his collar, but he had a microchip that led to a breeder who, in turn, contacted Wolpin. “We got him a bath,” she said, “so he no longer smells like the Hudson.”
One question remained, and it’s a groaner: Did Bear the dog dog-paddle his way to New Jersey?
Who knows, Chevalier said. “He swam over,” Chevalier said, “or the tide took him over.”
Correction – the New York Today New York Times Newsletter’s accounting of what happy conclusion to Bear’s story.
I’m just happy he is alive and well. Pets are precious and they give us so much. Glad Bear is back with Ellen.