HVAC worker saves blind dog who fell in family’s pool

QUEEN CREEK, Ariz. (KPHO/Gray News) - An Arizona family said they will be forever thankful for the HVAC worker who saved their blind dog when she fell into the backyard pool on a cold morning.

Malone is a 10-year-old English bulldog who is blind in one eye and, her family believes, also in the other. Her owner, Kim Slaughter, and her family are staying at her parent’s home in Queen Creek while their new house is being built.

“For a bulldog, she’s considered super senior,” Slaughter told KPHO. “She really didn’t need to do a polar plunge.”

Slaughter’s parents’ heat hasn’t been working, so Hunter Hitchens with Donley’s Service Center was over trying to fix it early Tuesday morning when he noticed that Malone had fallen into the backyard pool with temperatures in the 30s.

The bulldog was struggling to keep her head above the water. Slaughter’s son’s girlfriend was outside next to the pool, trying to lift the 60-pound dog out.

“I saw the panic set on her face, and the dog got out of her arms and started floating to the middle of the pool,” Hitchens said. “By the time I hit the back door, I already had one jacket off, about to take the second one off, because I knew either I had to go in or she had to go in.”

Thankfully, nobody had to jump into the water. Hitchens quickly went over to the edge of the pool and laid on his chest with his arms out, hoping Malone would come closer to him.

“The dog barely had her nose above the water. I think she saw me, even though she’s blind. She kind of wiggled her way over to me, and I grabbed her by the back of the neck,” Hitchens said.

Hitchens was able to reach down into the water and lift Malone out. There to save the heaters, he also ended up saving the bulldog.

“I’m just thankful ... that he was here, that it was somebody who loved pets as much as we do,” Slaughter said. “A lot of people don’t realize how important they are.”

Slaughter says they typically don’t let Malone outside without a leash and someone watching. They say they have never previously had an issue with the dog by the pool, which doesn’t have a fence, but they will be paying extra attention going forward.

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