Dog rescued at sea off Fort Myers Beach by yacht’s crew and reunited with family

A dog named Ellie was rescued at sea after being found paddling a mile and a half off Fort Myers Beach.

A couple spotted the stranded pup while on a dinner cruise between Fort Myers Beach and Lighthouse Beach on Sanibel.

Terry Johns is the captain of the Sanibel Harbor Princess. He also saw the animal swimming what he estimated to be a mile and a half offshore from the beach.

“I looked out, and I saw something in the water. Then I started hearing, ‘dog, dog, dog,'” said Johns.

After John’s call, the crew and passengers sprung into action.

Johns has an idea of how this could have transpired.

“Our currents have been pretty high this time of year. It could have gotten washed off, but it’s more likely it came off somebody’s boat. Maybe they kept going and didn’t realize the dog was gone,” said Johns.

Once the pup got on board, they gave her food and water. She had a chip, but it was unreadable.

Ellie has since been reunited with her family.

Her owners said that one minute, they were playing with her on their boat, and the next, she was gone.

“I was going underneath the Sanibel bridge, and I quit playing with her because I needed to watch traffic and after we got under the bridge out into the Gulf a little ways, my wife said, ‘Where’s Ellie?’ and I put it into neutral right away, and she wasn’t there. We started the zig-zag pattern,” said Ben Baker.

The Bakers looked for Ellie for hours until it was dark, and their boat ran out of gas. They started to think the worst.

“I just figured that was it. I’m 72 years old, and I have probably cried more in the last 18 hours,” Baker said.

But then they saw Ellie on WINK News!

“That’s how you started the news at 5:30 was with her [Ellie], and that’s when we made some phone calls,” Ben said.

It was a miracle that this little pup, with the help of some friends, was able to find her way home.