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Dolphins saved my life: woman

A woman says she owes her life to a pod of dolphins after slipping off a cliff and into the sea while trying to rescue her dog.

She says she thought she was going to die before the dolphins nudged her and her dog to safety.

Karyn Gitsham walks her dogs Buddy and Ramsay along the beach at Carrickalinga, on South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula, every morning.

Four-year-old Cocker Spaniel Ramsay often runs into the water chasing seagulls, but this morning he got into trouble when he couldn’t swim back.

Ms Gitsham says she climbed up the cliff face to follow the distressed pooch from the shore when the unthinkable happened.

“I just remember falling and I’m in the water and the waves were just pounding me up against the rocks and I could see him out there trying to get back in,” Ms Gitsham told 7News.

It was then that her unlikely saviours came to the rescue.

“I remember going under and coming back up I saw a fin, and I saw him, and thought ‘oh great, it’s a shark’,” she said.

“And then I saw another fin then I realised they were dolphins.

“These dolphins just formed this horseshoe and were guiding him in, pushing him in.”

Letting go to grab Ramsay, Ms Gitsham says the dolphins nudged the pair to safety.

“The dolphins came around me and pushed me into a massive, big boulder,” she said.

The retired police officer says her rescue is nothing short of a miracle.

But she won’t be tempting fate again, and will be keeping Buddy and Ramsey on the leash when they go on their morning strolls from now on.

The Carrickalinga cliffs where Karyn Gitsham had her amazing rescue. Photo: 7News.
The Carrickalinga cliffs where Karyn Gitsham had her amazing rescue. Photo: 7News.