A Nash County, NC, deputy is being called a hero for his quick and timely actions that saved the life of a family's puppy.

Trey Snow, an 11-year-old boy who lives in Spring Hope, wrote a message to the Nash County Sheriff's Office. In the letter, he describes an encounter with a deputy whose name he had forgotten but wanted desperately to remember because the deputy saved his puppy Riley from drowning in an old well.

Trey, his mother and his father could not reach Riley. She was too far down in the well--standing on her hind legs, jumping, clawing, doing anything she could to keep her head above the cold water.

Trey wrote that the deputy, who was off-duty at the time, stopped his white Chevrolet truck when he saw Trey running down the street in his pajamas.

The deputy, identified as B. Heath, jumped out of his truck and had Trey's dad hold his feet and lower him into the well. He was able to pull Riley to safety, ABC 11 reports.

The Snow family rushed Riley to the veterinary hospital where she was treated for exhaustion, head trauma and infection.