Donica Tomko holds the dog that she and her friend Anne Wilsey found during a bike ride near the Kansas River.

While riding bicycles across the Kansas River bridge into North Lawrence on Wednesday, Anne Wilsey and Donica Tomko ran into a little black-and-white pooch perched on the bridge, apparently ready to jump.

“Don’t do it,” Wilsey said, joking with the mutt. “Don’t jump.”

Apparently, the dog already had.

Seeing the dog shivering, wet and sandy, Wilsey decided to ask around about the pooch.

They found Jim Morey, whose wife works at the Village Witch, 311 N. Second St. Morey said he watched the dog take the plunge.

“It just kind of leaped up and over the side like it knew what it was doing,” he said.

The owner, Morey told Wilsey, looked upset.

Wilsey figured the owner didn’t think the little dog could survive the fall. But, through it all, it made its way up from the water and back onto the bridge.

Now, all Wilsey and Tomko want is to reunite the dog with its owner. Wilsey is keeping the dog until the owner is found.