Two Men Swam Into A Flooded Field To Save A Fox Stranded On A Tiny Rock

A family of foxes had spent the spring living around a rock pile in a field near Welwyn, Saskatchewan, close enough to Colin Graham’s farmhouse that watching them had become part of everyday life. Then, over a few days in June 2014, torrential rain transformed the familiar farmland into a vast stretch of floodwater. By Monday, the field had effectively disappeared, with only the rock pile still visible above the surface. When Graham and his sister went to see what had happened to the foxes, they spotted something still stranded on the rocks.

The animal was roughly 75 metres from dry ground, with Graham estimating the water around it at eight feet deep. Getting to the fox meant swimming across the flooded field, where the water was deep enough that the men could not simply walk to the animal. Graham and his friend Jordan Olson decided to go anyway. What followed was a dangerous swim through floodwater to reach a frightened young fox that had nowhere else to go.

Eight Inches Of Rain Had Swallowed The Countryside

The rescue took place during a major flooding event across southeastern Saskatchewan. Rain began falling on Friday and continued through Monday, with close to 200 millimetres, or around eight inches, falling across the hardest-hit areas. By June 30, 37 communities had declared local states of emergency as roads, bridges and culverts were damaged or washed out by the rising water.

The flooding was particularly destructive because the water was coming from relentless rainfall rather than ordinary spring runoff. In Moosomin, the mayor reported that almost a third of the town had suffered flood damage, with some basements containing as much as three feet of water. A long stretch of Highway 8 was also closed north of the Trans-Canada Highway as the flooding disrupted transportation across the region.

The impact on agriculture was enormous. Saskatchewan’s agriculture department later estimated that between two million and three million acres of cropland had been flooded and would not produce a crop that year. Against that backdrop, the rescue of one small fox might seem like a minor event, but for Graham and Olson, there was still an animal sitting on a rock with the water continuing to surround it.

Graham’s sister was the one who first asked what had happened to the foxes they had been watching. When the family drove out to investigate, there was little left of the field to see. “My sister wondered what happened to the foxes, so we drove out there and there was just one rock sticking out of the top of the water,” Graham told CBC News. Something was still alive on it.

The Men Had To Swim 75 Metres Through Deep Water

The distance from the rock to dry ground was roughly 75 metres, according to Graham. That may not sound particularly far under normal circumstances, but the conditions made the journey completely different. The field had disappeared beneath the flood, and the water around the rock was deep enough that the men had no realistic option of simply walking out to the animal.

Graham and Olson entered the water together and began swimming toward the rock. Floodwater carries dangers that are difficult to see from the surface, particularly across farmland where fences, machinery, debris and uneven ground can be hidden underneath. The National Weather Service warns that just six inches of fast-moving water can knock an adult off their feet, while 12 inches can carry away a small car.

The men were dealing with water that Graham estimated at around eight feet deep. There was no clear path visible beneath them and no way of knowing exactly what was underneath the surface as they moved toward the fox. They nevertheless continued across the flooded field because the animal had no obvious way to get off the rock by itself.

The rescue was therefore dangerous before the men even reached the fox. They were not simply approaching an animal on dry land. They were swimming into a flooded landscape to reach a wild animal that was already exhausted and frightened, with the journey back to shore still waiting for them after they caught it.

The Fox Tried To Escape Its Rescuers

When Graham finally reached the rock, the young fox still had enough energy to try to escape. Instead of remaining where it was, the animal jumped into the floodwater and attempted to swim away from the men who had come to reach it. Graham described the moment when he first arrived and saw the fox make its move.

“When I first got there, he had a little bit of energy and he bailed off the rock and into the water and tried to swim away,” Graham said. The reaction was understandable for a frightened wild animal. After being stranded in the middle of a flooded field, the fox had no reason to know that the people entering the water were trying to help.

Graham managed to catch the animal before it could get away. Up close, the fox was surprisingly small, with Graham describing it as being about the size of a kitten. It was also completely soaked after spending an unknown amount of time exposed to the rain and surrounded by cold floodwater.

The photographs from the rescue captured the strange contrast of the moment. The men had deliberately swum into dangerous water to save the animal, while the animal itself was still trying to escape from them. It was a reminder that rescuing wildlife does not always look like the animal understands what is happening.

They Took The Fox Home Before Returning It To The Wild

Once Graham and Olson had secured the fox, they brought it back to dry ground and placed it in the back of a pickup truck. They took the animal home, where it could be dried off and warmed up after being stranded in the floodwater. The immediate danger had passed, but Graham still had another problem to solve.

The fox belonged to a family that he had been watching since spring. Keeping the young animal was never the intention, and there was no reason to separate it permanently from its mother if she was still alive and somewhere nearby. The men therefore returned to the flooded area to see whether they could locate her.

Later that same day, they spotted the mother fox. That gave them a chance to return the young animal to the area where it belonged. “Then we were driving later, and we saw the mother out there, so we took him back,” Graham said.

The reunion appeared to have a happy ending. Graham later told CBC News, “They’re reunited. I saw them running around the other day.” After everything the fox had been through, it was back outside with its mother rather than being kept by the people who had rescued it.

Photographs Turned A Local Rescue Into A Viral Story

The rescue might have remained a remarkable story known only around Welwyn if Derek Roeher had not been there to photograph what happened. Roeher was with the men during the rescue and captured images of them swimming through the flooded field toward the stranded fox. He later shared the photographs online, giving people far beyond Saskatchewan a look at the extraordinary conditions surrounding the rescue.

The photographs made the scale of the situation immediately clear. The familiar farmland had become a huge body of water, the rock pile was almost completely surrounded, and the men appeared tiny against the flooded landscape. Somewhere ahead of them was a young fox that had been left with nowhere to go as the water continued to cover the field.

Roeher later described the scene as his friends swimming to rescue stranded foxes after eight inches of rain near Welwyn. The photographs travelled widely because they contained everything needed to understand the story at a glance: a flooded field, a stranded animal and two people willing to enter the water to reach it.

There was also no elaborate rescue operation behind the images. No specialist wildlife team was shown arriving with equipment. The rescue came down to Graham and Olson deciding to swim across the flooded field, catch the fox and get it back to safety. That simplicity is part of what made the photographs so memorable.

Reports Still Differ On How Many Foxes Were Stranded

There is one detail in the story that remains unclear more than a decade later. Roeher’s account reportedly described two foxes being found among the nearly submerged rocks, while the CBC report based on Graham’s interview describes one young fox being rescued. The difference has travelled with the story, but the available accounts do not provide enough information to definitively settle it.

Graham’s account is detailed about the animal he rescued. He described reaching the rock, watching the fox jump into the water and swim away, catching it, taking it home and later returning it after the mother was spotted. His account therefore follows one young fox from the flooded rock to its eventual reunion.

Roeher’s description referred to foxes in the plural, which is why some later versions of the story have described two animals being stranded. Without additional evidence, however, it would be misleading to turn that discrepancy into a certainty. The safest account is that at least one young fox was rescued after becoming stranded on the rock pile.

What is not disputed is the part that made the story extraordinary. The field was flooded, the animal was stranded roughly 75 metres from safety, the water was estimated at around eight feet deep, and Graham and Olson swam through it to reach the fox.

The Fox Was Back With Its Mother After The Rescue

The flooding eventually receded, leaving behind damaged roads, submerged farmland and communities facing the consequences of one of Saskatchewan’s worst flooding events in years. Millions of acres had been affected, and the agricultural losses would continue long after the water disappeared. The rock pile, however, eventually became just another feature in the field.

For the rescued fox, the ending was much simpler. It was dried and warmed after being taken from the floodwater, then returned after its mother was spotted nearby. Graham later saw the pair running around the area, suggesting that the young fox had successfully returned to its normal life.

The story is still remembered because the scale of the disaster and the size of the rescue were so different. Millions of acres were underwater across Saskatchewan, yet the images that travelled furthest showed two men swimming toward one tiny animal on a rock.

The flood changed an entire landscape for a time. For one young fox, getting back to dry land depended on two people deciding that 75 metres of dangerous water was worth crossing.