Milford firefighters are no strangers to calls with animals.

“For a lot of people, it is their families. So, for animals and what we do, it's important for us to make sure that we accomplish our mission,” stated Battalion Chief Jason Dombrowski.

Their mission Wednesday afternoon involved rescuing a small dog from the marsh at Silver Sands State Park.

The dog was initially found earlier in the day by a good Samaritan who saw the animal running loose on the Post Road by the Target in Orange.

“Very busy area, so it was a good thing he brought it to us,” said Gary Farrar Jr., of Milford Animal Control.

Animal control is in Silver Sands, but the handover didn't exactly go smoothly.

“A couple of our officers came out to help get the dog out of the car. One of the officers, unfortunately, lost the grip of the dog,” Farrar explained.

And the dog took off into the park, which spans 297 acres.

“Our officers chased the dog around the park for 30 to 40 minutes, lost sight of the animal, came back to the shelter in hopes somebody would either see the animal and report it or be able to contain the dog,” Farrar said.

Not long after, a park official came by to say the dog was about 40 to 50 feet into the marsh there and appeared to be stuck.

“It did look like it was stuck. It wasn't moving. We attempted to get to it, but unfortunately, we were unable to get to it by our means alone, so we contacted the fire department,” Farrar stated.

The call to fire came in around 1 p.m., according to Dombrowski.

“We have a 75-foot ladder that we were able to extend up, and it gave a very good vantage point to try and assist our guys as they were kind of walking through the marsh,” Dombrowski explained.

But the rescue wasn't routine. It turned out the dog wasn't stuck.

“It was pretty funny to watch everybody. They're almost there, they're about to get him, and then he runs off,” recalled Farrar.

“Unfortunately, the dog was very scared, and so it would run away from us. It really kind of made for a little bit of a comic routine,” said Dombrowski laughing. “We were actually running around trying to get the dog for about an hour and a half.”

Firefighters wore Mustang suits which allowed them to stay out there longer, Dombrowksi said. And finally, they were able to safely wrangle the little guy, who’s now at the shelter.

Animal control has taken to calling him “Marshall,” since the dog was in the marsh. Farrar said he’s about 20 pounds and appears to be a Chihuahua mix.

“Definitely got a lot of energy. He’s a little bit on the aggressive side, probably more scared than anything,” Farrar told News 12.

Animal control is now trying to locate the dog’s owner. If that doesn’t happen, Marshall will be up for adoption after a period of time.

“Our hopes are by doing this story, we can try to find this animal its home,” Dombrowski added.

Anyone with information on Marshall can contact Milford Animal Control at 203-783-3279.