UPS driver rescues 2 dogs from swimming pool while owners were away: 'I would say that he is a hero'

A UPS driver in Iowa has been lauded as "a hero" after he rescued two dogs from a swimming pool while the owners were away from home.

Colin Mitchell was dropping off a package at the home of Jeff and Rebecca Marra in Ireton, Iowa, near the border of South Dakota, when he saw something that just "didn't feel right": Two dogs were in an above-ground pool on the property, but the homeowners were nowhere to be found.

After he spotted the dogs on his way back to his truck, Mitchell yelled loudly, "Can your dogs swim?", but he didn't receive an answer. He then rang the doorbell, but was met with silence once again. Following his instincts, Mitchell decided to take off his shoes and socks and fetch the dogs out himself.

"As I approached the pool, I could see a dog hanging on the side, inside the pool, and I could see a dog swimming around on the solar cover — the water blanket, basically," Mitchell recalled to reporters.

Though Groot, the smaller of the two dogs, got out easily enough, Mitchell had a bit more trouble with Remington, nicknamed "Remy," who weighs 90 lbs.

"I had to get a good grip on him because, the first time when I was on my knees, I couldn't get him out ..." Mitchell said. "I had to make sure I got him out the second time. I didn't want him swimming back and forth a whole bunch of times."

Mitchell then stopped by the house the next day to check on the dogs.

The Marras are very grateful that Mitchell was there to save the day. The couple told reporters that if Mitchell had not been there, the dogs would have been in the pool for at least another three hours and likely would have drowned.

"If it weren't for him, we wouldn't have dogs. There's no question about it," Jeff Marra said.

"I would say that he is a hero," Rebecca added.

The Marras speculate that the dogs wound up in the pool after they managed to jump the pool gate. Both dogs have made a full recovery.

Though the incident just hit the news in the last week or so, a timestamp on the Ring video indicates that the incident actually occurred back on July 19.

H/T: Sunny Skyz