A FAMILY pet has been hailed a hero after he saved the day for gas engineers with the doggy paddle.

Ten-year-old springer spaniel Joss came to the rescue as gas pipeline engineers in Knaresborough struggled to lay a pipe beneath a river.

Joss leapt to their aid - right into the cold waters of the River Nidd - swimming across the river and delivering ropes safely across the water to allow the engineers to continue their work.

Joss was being walked by his owner, Trevor Green around Horseshoe Fields, by the River Nidd, when they noticed workers struggling to cross the 40ft-wide river.

Engineers had managed to drill a hole beneath the river, but could not pass the 14-inch pipe through it.

The only option was to pass ropes across the river and winch the pipe across - which was where Joss came in.

Trevor said: "I offered to send Joss across the river to the gas engineers on the other side of the bank with a rope, so they could attach the winch cable to him, and I'd whistle Joss to swim back to me.

"The engineers thought I was joking at first, but when Joss came out of the water everyone applauded him, he really had saved the day."

Senior site agent Richard Chadwick, of Alfred McAlpines, said: "If it wasn't for Joss then the crossing the river would have taken much longer to complete."

The pipeline project is part of a multi-million pound move to replace metal gas mains pipes with plastic ones.

Updated: 09:10 Wednesday, April 09, 2003