Loon Rescue One November day in 1970, Dr. Judith McIntyre received a phone call about a loon that was doomed. It was swimming in Pughole Lake 200 in northern Minnesota, but the lake was freezing fast. Dr. McIntyre wrote about the experience in a National Geographic magazine. She and her husband Pat drove for four hours with a canoe. The loon had kept a small circle of water ice-free by swimming continuously. The McIntyres knew it would be close to impossible to catch the loon in the daytime, but that night they shined a flashlight into its eyes and caught the exhausted bird almost immediately. This was a young bird, and the feathers in her right wing had not aligned properly, so she couldn't fly. On the ride home, Dr. McIntyre named her Puglet. That night Puglet slept in a closet, but the next day Dr. McIntyre put her in a bathtub. She wrote that Puglet "leaped from the tub, scooched seal-like to the door, and pecked to be let out." Pat McIntyre built a pool in the basement with a small island fashioned from a metal table with a towel draped over it. A local bait dealer supplied them with minnows and, for treats, fish called suckers. All winter Puglet swam in the McIntyre basement eating thosands of fish. When she finished her supply, she would call with the two-note wail that loons use when they want to get together. Pairs use it to call each other, parents use it to call their chicks when separated, and Puglet used it to call the McIntyres to get more fish. To give Puglet the chance to do more swimming, Dr. McIntyre would put hook her into a bright red dog harness, with her wings coming through the leg openings, and took her to a stream that ran through her backyard, until it froze. She hooked the leash onto a kite reel so Puglet could swim long distances for exercise. Loons are not good walkers because their legs are placed so far back on their bodies, but Puglet could scoot up the snowy hill back to the McIntyre's house faster than Dr. McIntyre could! The next spring, the McIntyres brought Puglet to Pughole Lake and gently placed her on the shore. Dr. McIntyre wrote, "She slipped into the lake, looked back once, and dove. We never saw her again. But when the night is calm and a loon lilts its long lament over a nearby lake, our thoughts often return to Puglet and the cry we heeded." Copyright 1999 Journey North. All Rights Reserved. Please send all questions, comments, and suggestions to our feedback form