{"id":317327,"date":"2026-06-23T21:31:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T21:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/317327\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T21:31:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T21:31:09","slug":"firefighters-face-unique-situation-after-dog-they-rescued-from-drowning-turns-out-to-be-a-different-animal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/317327\/","title":{"rendered":"Firefighters Face \u2018Unique Situation\u2019 After Dog They Rescued from Drowning Turns Out to Be a Different Animal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NEED TO KNOW<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Firefighters in Florida rescued what they thought was a dog, but later learned was a coyote pup, from a canal on Monday, June 22<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A kayaker and a neighbor who jumped into the lake were recognized for helping local firefighters with the &#8220;unique&#8221; rescue<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The coyote pup was taken to a veterinary center and will later be rehabilitated at a wildlife clinic<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A recent dog rescue in Florida left some firefighters perplexed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Cape Coral Fire Department (CCFD) in Florida revealed on social media that their dog rescue in a canal in Britannia Lake on Monday, June 22, turned out to be a coyote in need of rescue.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Firefighters said two of their units responded to a call about a dog stuck in a canal. When firefighters arrived and attempted to rescue the animal, the creature &#8220;swam from shore to shore.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A Good Samaritan, Denae Judd, who had been kayaking in the canal, offered to help firefighters by monitoring the animal in the water.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The animal eventually crawled under a dock. Judd informed the firefighters of the location, which eventually led to the animal&#8217;s rescue.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Firefighters entered the water and were able to extract what turned out to be a coyote pup from the space,&#8221; CCFD said in a statement. &#8220;It was exhausted from its ventures and unable to be released.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The CCFD shared a video of a firefighter wearing a life jacket moving under the dock to catch the coyote. In the footage, the rescuers remove the coyote from a beam beneath the dock, safely capturing it in their arms before moving it to shore.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Cape Coral Fire Department rescues a coyote pup rescued from a Florida canalCredit: Cape Coral Fire Department\/Facebook\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"320\" height=\"480\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/2c04ddab453d1720b1e6f44920bfd28b.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Cape Coral Fire Department rescues a coyote pup rescued from a Florida canal<br \/>Credit: Cape Coral Fire Department\/Facebook<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Photos from the rescue show a firefighter bringing the coyote pup to shore and a firefighter giving the thumbs-up with Judd, who helped with the search. The CCFD said Judd was presented with a Community Recognition Coin for her &#8220;assistance with this unique situation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">After the rescue, crews took the coyote pup to the East West Veterinary Care Center, which the CCFD said would help coordinate the animal&#8217;s safe transfer to the Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife, Inc. (CROW).<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Coyote pup drying off after its rescue by the Cape Coral Fire DepartmentCredit: Cape Coral Fire Department\/Facebook\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"320\" height=\"480\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/9f9f965df4cd3e9c0b5a36d678a7a4f5.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Coyote pup drying off after its rescue by the Cape Coral Fire Department<br \/>Credit: Cape Coral Fire Department\/Facebook<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The agency shared photos of the coyote getting dried off with a blanket while in a cage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">It was unclear how the coyote pup got into the water and whether any of its pack members were nearby.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Never miss a story \u2014 sign up for <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/people-news-daily-newsletter-sign-up-8692701\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:PEOPLE&#039;s free daily newsletter;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;PEOPLE&#039;&quot;}\" class=\"link \">PEOPLE&#8217;s free daily newsletter<\/a> to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The CCFD noted that a neighbor near the rescue site, Brian, &#8220;originally saw the coyote fall in the lake&#8221; and even &#8220;jumped in after to try to get it!&#8221; This alerted his neighbors as to what was happening, and they eventually called 911.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;We weren&#8217;t able to get a photo, but firefighters stopped by this afternoon to present him with a coin as well,&#8221; the CCFD said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Read the original article on <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/firefighters-rescuing-dog-rescue-coyote-instead-12004981\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:People;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;People&quot;}\" class=\"link \">People<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEED TO KNOW Firefighters in Florida rescued what they thought was a dog, but later learned was a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,16934,116130],"class_list":["post-317327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-ccfd","tag-coyote-pup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}