There’s never a dull moment when these two get behind the wheel of Medic 3, even during a snow storm.
“We tried to save a few lives throughout the day, which we did accomplish and we figured yah know, we saw this dog running around, why not save another life,” said Omaha Firefighter/Paramedic Dan Povondra.
Omaha Firefighters/Paramedics TJ Korpela and Dan Povondra went from life-savers to dog catchers Tuesday evening.
“We had just dropped a patient off at Nebraska Medicine, so we were driving down Dodge Street and we just saw the dog and it was running literally down the middle of Dodge,” said Korpela.
The pair could have kept driving, but they were determined to rescue the loose dog.
“We were definitely out matched with speed, but we out smarted him,” said Povondra.
After almost 30 minutes in the dark and snow.
“Every time that we would get close to him, he would take off running,” said Korpela.
The dog was finally cornered.
“We just slowly started walking up to him, we didn't know his name, so I just called him Buddy hoping he would like me,” said Korpela.
His name was not Buddy, it’s Archer and his owner Dawn Cipriano was very worried. Archer had been on the loose for more than 6 hours.
"It was snowing again and it was cold and he had never been out that long before,” said Cipriano.
Little did Dawn know, her dog was in good hands.
"We kind of laughed after we caught him; we were kind of like well now what do? We put him in the back of the squad because it was warm in there,” said Korpela.
Archer didn’t have a tag, but social media helped the two find his home. Dawn had posted on the “Lost Pets of Omaha” Facebook page. A fellow firefighter’s wife spotted the post.
“He was sitting on the ground and I said hey Archer and he kind of looked up at me,” said Korpela.
Dawn was relieved when TJ posted a picture to the Lost Pets Page saying “I think we found Archer.”
"I'm very appreciative, I’m glad they went out of their way,” said Cirpriano.
TJ and Dan say even though dog catcher isn’t in the job description, it a part of their gig.
“At the time we knew it was the right thing to do so it didn't get hit on Dodge Street or wasn't running around in the cold. But, firemen do this every single day, our story just happened to get noticed,” said Korpela.
