Police Officer Nick Ague Hailed as Hero After Rescuing Dog From Accident

A Pennsylvania patrol officer was proclaimed a hero after he rescued a German shepherd from a car wreck in South Londonberry.

Since the rescue, a photo of patrol officer Nick Ague carrying thedog that his fellow police officers posted to Facebook has gone viral with nearly 4, 500 likes and tons of admiring comments.

“Amazing people still do exist!” one user wrote. Another wrote, “What a special gift you are to the police force and to this German shepherd who needed your help and was given so freely!!!!”

The act of heroism began on Aug. 11,  when Ague heard on the radio that there had been a car accident nearby, and that two dogs involved in the crash had fled from the scene.

“I heard other people say they saw a German shepherd running,” Ague told ABC News.com.  ”Based on the location I could tell the dog was heading west.”

So Ague and a few fellow officers set out to find the  dog, who they later learned was named Mya. They flagged Mya down, but every time they stopped their patrol cars, she would run from them. They called Mya’s owner, and when she arrived on the scene, Mya finally stopped running.  And then the dog wouldn’t move at all.

That was when Ague realized something was terribly wrong. He  quickly realized that it wasn’t that the dog wouldn’t move but couldn’t move.

“The dog was not moving because the skin on the pads of her feet was hanging, presumably because of the distance she ran,” Ague explained. “She ran two miles from the crash on hot asphalt.

“When I realized that’s why she couldn’t walk,” he said, “the only thing I could think to do was pick her up.”

So he hoisted Mya, who he said weighed around 75 pounds, and carried  her about 100 yards to her owner’s car.

Mya’s owner, Megan Smith, declined to comment to ABCNews.com, explaining that she did not want to bring Mya any more publicity. But she said that  Mya’s paws were almost healed, and she was now walking normally.

Ague, who has a German shepherd of his own and described himself as “a huge animal lover” (he had petitioned for a canine department in his police force last year) said he never thought of doing anything besides saving Mya.

“Just putting myself in the owners shoes, I would not want to be in that situation. I tried to right any wrong and do what I hoped someone would do for me,” he said.