At a home to fix a heater, an Arizona HVAC worker ended up saving a family’s dog when she fell in the backyard swimming pool.

Malone is a 10-year-old blind English bulldog. Her owner, Kim Slaughter, was staying at her parent’s home in Queen Creek while her family’s new home was being built.

It was January 11, and temperatures were in the 30s. Slaughter’s parents’ heater wasn’t working, so Hunter Hitchens with Donley’s Service Center was at the house attempting to fix it when he noticed the senior bulldog in the swimming pool, struggling to keep her head above water. Slaughter’s son’s girlfriend was next to the pool, trying to lift the 60-pound dog out of the water.

“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.”

Hitchens went to the pool, lying on the deck with his arms out, hoping the dog would come to him.

“The dog barely had her nose above the water,” Hitchens said. “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.”

There to fix the heater, Hitchens ended up saving the dog, and Slaughter said she was very thankful that there was someone around who loves animals as much as she does.

The family has never had an issue with the dog by the pool, which is unfenced, but they will be paying more attention in the future.

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