A retired bakery worker helped to save a dog's life after hearing the distressed animal howling in the early hours of a freezing morning.
Dave Carvell, 64, who suffers from the disabling breathing conditions asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), donned his dressing gown and grabbed a torch to look for the tormented animal.
He found an ageing black labrador up to its shoulders in thick mud and freezing water in the pitch dark at 4.15am on Monday, in a brook 100 yards from his home in Brook Drive, Ratby.
Dave called the fire service and, as he waited for them to arrive, tried to keep the terrified animal calm by stroking its head and talking to it.
He said: "My partner was woken up by a dog barking. It was making distressed, howling noises and sounded like it was in trouble.
"I decided to go out and have a look – someone had to. I thought it might have been tied to a tree or something.
"When I got to it, the water was three-quarters of the way up it.
"He was struggling to get out of the mud at the bottom of the brook.
"He was quite an old fella, puffing and panting, and looked on his last legs. I felt so sorry for him.
"While I was waiting for the fire service, I was talking to him and stroking his head.
"His eyes were bulging, he was really stressed out.
"I couldn't have gone in the brook because I suffer from asthma and COPD – it was difficult enough to breathe in the freezing air.
"The firemen were here very quickly.
"One of the blokes had waders on and he got into the water and picked him up. The firemen asked if I had a locked yard I could keep him in, but he was freezing cold, so I took him into my kitchen, dried him off and gave him some dog food that I borrowed from a neighbour.
"He was such a lovely dog, so obedient," he said.
The dog, tired out by the ordeal, later went to sleep on a towel in the kitchen.
"The firemen said from the look of him he would have died if he had been left there much longer because the water was freezing," said Mr Carvell.
The dog was found to have a microchip and was taken to Leicester Animal Aid at Huncote by the RSPCA before being later reunited with his owner.
Two fire crews from Leicester's western station and the technical rescue team from the city's southern station freed the dog just after 4.45am.
