Three kind-hearted construction workers from Estonia, who saved an animal from a frozen river, had the adventure of their lives this Wednesday. Rando Kartsepp, Robin Sillamäe, and Erki Väli were all doing dredging work when they noticed what looked like a dog trapped on the dam, swimming through the icy water of Parnu river. After clearing a path through the thin ice, they took the animal out of the water, wrapped it in a towel, and put it in a car to make him warm in below zero temperatures. “We had to carry him over the slope. He weighed a fair bit,” one of the workers remembers.
The three men called the animal rescue and were told to take the ‘dog’ to a veterinary clinic in a nearby city. Rando, one of the workers, said that the animal was sleeping peacefully in the car, with its head resting on the man’s lap. According to him, it was calm and when Rando wanted to stretch his legs, it raised its head for a moment. The specialists later found out that the wild animal had low blood pressure at the moment, which might explain the docile behavior displayed.
Upon the workers’ arrival, specialists at the clinic gave the animal a checkup and failed to notice who they were actually dealing with. It was a local hunter who eventually pointed out that the frozen animal was actually a wolf, not a friendly dog as was previously thought. He has also confirmed it to be male and around one-year-old.
Soon after the animal was rescued, the Estonian Animal Protection Union took it to Facebook and posted: “When we got to the shore, the poor grey wolf was very exhausted, hypothermic and frozen. Young men quickly ran into the car, brought a towel, and dried the beautiful animal. Then he took him to a warm car and called the animal protection Union. It was also a challenge for the union to think about what to do in the morning at 8 with a dog in [distress], who could also have been a wolf.”
The wolf has been already nursed back into health and 
released into the wild after the researchers from the National Environmental Agency put a GPS collar around his neck. The Estonian Union for the Protection of Animals (EUPA) paid for the wolf’s treatment and later told the media: “We are so happy for the outcome of the story, and wish to thank all the participants – especially these men who rescued the wolf and the doctors of the clinic who were not afraid to treat and nurture the wild animal.”