BobnRox in Ecuador

Yesterday, someone's little brown and white dog got into our yard and terrified a couple of iguanas sunning on the ground--making them bolt for the trunk of the same Coco Palm tree to get away.  Unfortunately, they don't quite know how to climb these steep trunks at the same time, so as one poor little guy was waiting to climb, the little dog attacked him.  He panicked and ran out of our yard, onto the beach, and was chased into the waves.

Dale, our guest, began shouting at the dog to stop.  But the waves finally made the dog quit the pursuit.  

Now...we had a little iguana swimming for his life in huge waves and a furious undertow.

We all ran out on the beach, jumped in the waves, and tried to guide the little guy onto our sticks.  He was more terrified of us than getting saved, so he kept swimming away into the breakers.

It was really frantic out there, as we tried to keep our footing in the undertow, stay out of the big waves, and keep trying to find the little iguana whenever he resurfaced.

We had a furious sideways current, also, so each time he came up he was about 50 feet further south of us.  These iguanas are not built for swimming, and each time he went under, it was  longer and longer before we saw him again.

When he went down and didn't come up, we spread out and tried to find him, hoping that we could rescue him, even if he was unconscious.

Dale was at the south end of our group, and suddenly he was running further south (by now over 500 feet further south).  We could see him frantically trying to lift the almost dead iguana by the stomach to get him up on the beach so we could help him.

We kept thinking that our little guy would jump off, but he was barely alive...