A Milwaukee man, his rescue dog, the power of social media, and a man who was in the right place at the right time

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- It'd be hard to find someone who loves dogs more than Joseph Allen of Milwaukee.

Allen, or more affectionately nicknamed "Musher Joe," has spent years training and fostering northern dogs.

His most recent rescue? A beautiful 4-year-old Alaskan husky named Wall-E, who came last Sunday.

Due to a traumatic and abusive past, Wall-E was skittish and nervous. The two were working together on gaining trust between the partnership.

"He is the sweetest dog in the world. The only thing he wants is love and attention and affection and affirmation," Allen told CBS 58's Ellie Nakamoto-White.

But on Tuesday, Feb. 7, just three days after Wall-E arrived, both man and his best friend's worst nightmare came true while they were out for a walk in Wilson Park.

"I was trying to jog across the street with this guy, and [with] the quick commotion, he shut down completely," Allen said. "What happened is he cowered down and the harness went up over his head and he was gone in an instant."

Allen said Wall-E took off down the nearby Howard Ave., running down the road.

"He is such a pedigree race athlete, all he knew, his only instinct was to run and there is no way that I'm going to outrun a dog who's used to running 10 miles a day," Allen said.

He immediately ran for his nearby truck to chase him, but not before stopping to post for help on social media.

"Dozens of people that were chiming in, saying, 'oh, I saw this dog here, I saw this dog here, he's making a beeline, he's faster than nothing," Allen said. 

Meet Wall-E — a 4yo Alaskan husky, recently rescued by “Musher Joe.” But on Tuesday, a nightmare for both man and his best friend came true. Only on @CBS58 at 5p — how the powers of social media and the #Milwaukee community joined together for a harrowing water rescue? pic.twitter.com/3UJM9dnHwu

— Ellie Nakamoto-White (@ellienw_news) February 10, 2023

Around 2 p.m., about an hour after Wall-E went missing, Sloane Heslip, a traffic supervisor at Federal Marine Terminals, received a call.

It was coming from a driver who had just left Heslip's office by Jones Island -- miles away from Wilson Park -- alerting him of a dog swimming in the nearby frigid water.

"I tell my boss right away. I head out and see the dog swimming towards us. I then coax it over to the ladder. It instinctually grabs on to the one spot it knows and it's looking up at us. Barely keeping his head above the water," Heslip said. 

But when his boss began to head back inside to grab some kind of rope or sling, Heslip noted the pup start to swim away.

"So, I figured I better get down there and grab onto it, at least keep it, keep his head on the water," Heslip remembered. "And so, it starts swimming back to me when I'm down at the bottom. Luckily, it was pretty calm out. Nothing too wavy or anything. So, it comes over to me. I grab it up and put it up on the ladder as best I can, like its front two legs, and it grabs on, surprisingly calm for all it's been through."

He was then able to help boost the dog up and back onto land before carrying it inside and wrapping him in warm blankets underneath his desk.

"I didn't really think, I just acted," Heslip said. 

After the two were able to take a closer look at the animal, Heslip said his boss recognized the dog from a Facebook post sent to him by his girlfriend.

They quickly got in touch with Allen and thankfully, he and Wall-E were reunited.

"The social media community is what brought this dog home," Allen said. "If it wasn't for [them] springing into action and being loving, compassionate people, this would've ended very differently."

Allen told CBS 58 that he is continuing to work with Wall-E on his traumas and his cowering, so that this does not happen again.