Shirtless Man Saves Dog After Slipping Into Icy Pond and Gets Biting Reward

There’s an old saying, “Never bite the hand that feeds you.” In this case it should say, “Never bite the hand that saves you.” It happened to a brave passerby when a dog in Russia was trapped in icy water after slipping through a frozen pond.

The video, which has gone viral with over 330,000 views and uploaded by Alexander Levashov, begins with an establishing shot of a shaky camera zooming in on the poor pup just hanging there. As the camera pans out we can see the dangerous scope this pup is faced with – it’s paws clinging onto the outer ice for its dear canine life.

It seems like eternity before someone bravely comes to its rescue. You can hear the crunching of snow in the background with people “Oohing” and “Ahhing” with nervousness. Then all of a sudden his savior comes into view scurrying over to the pup in need. Apparently this man must’ve watched an episode of Bear Grylls cold survival tips as he removed his shirt before taking on the icy challenge.

Laying on his bare belly, he approached the barking dog attempting to maneuver his hand to pull the dog out by the scruff of its neck. But the dog would have none of this gallantry and promptly nipped at his rescuer’s hands, plunging back into the icy depths. One commenter wondered, “Hey! Isn’t that shirtless guy Vladimir Putin???”

It’s time like this where you wish you had subtitles as he is heard screaming something in Russian to the panicked pup – probably “Calm down” – with a woman yelling off camera, probably something like, “What are you crazy?!”

The man tries to fake the dog out with his hands. Finally after a harrowing minute and a half he manages to grab hold of the dog’s scruff and pulls the dog out to safety sliding it along the ice before letting go.

Birds start flying around the scene as if on cue as the dog bounds off to small cheers and applause. The man looking like a frozen popsicle jogs back over to the camera as the dog comes back into view confusingly glancing back to the man who saved its life. The man grabs a handful of snow to soothe the bite that will no doubt become his badge of honor, smiling widely to the camera person while hiking up his pants, which is a good thing as the video could’ve turned into something much more than a dog rescue.