A dog swims out in the Gulf of Mexico and is pulled into a kayaker's boat.
SARASOTA, FL - The beginning of an amazing, yet tragic story was captured on a kayaker's boat camera while fishing in the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida coast.
As the kayaker was surveying the gulf waters, a dog swam up to his boat out of nowhere.
Upon pulling the shivering dog from the water, the man paddled around to see if another boater had lost the dog. When he could not find an owner, the kayaker took the dog into shore.
Once ashore it was obvious the dog's leg was severely injured, but the boater's launch point was two miles away by kayak. So the man called his sister who was amazingly only a few hundred yards away with her family.
The sister took the dog to the vet who located an identification microchip and attempted to contact the owner. It was also revealed through the chip that the dog's name was Barney.
It soon came to be known that Barney's owner, Donna L. Chen, had been walking him when a suspected drunk driver lost control of his car on Highway 758 N and struck both pedestrians.
Barney, terrified from the incident, ran from the scene, eventually diving into the gulf where he was rescued by the kayaker.
Sadly, Barney's owner died in the incident.
Blake C. Talman, 22, was later identified as the driver of the vehicle that struck Chen and Barney. According to Florida Highway Patrol officers, Talman was fleeing the scene of another crash when he hit Barney and killed Chen.
Investigators say Talman, of Bradenton, faces charges including DUI manslaughter and DUI property damage and personal injury.
Sunday morning, the hospital reported that Talman and the passenger who had been in the car with him at the time of the collision, had been discharged.
Talman is currently booked into the Sarasota County Jail.
In his first appearance before a judge, Talman's total bond was set at $100,000.
According to CNN, Barney is now back with his family and expected to make a full recovery.
ABC