A woman has claimed she experienced the "worst date ever" after she ended up rescuing her Tinder match's dog from a river.
Lizzy Johnson, 37, from Surrey, decided to meet up with her match for a socially distanced walk.
However, the date soon turned into a rescue mission when she jumped in the River Mole in Walton-on-Thames to save his Boxer dog, while he "just stood there".
Mum-of-two Lizzy says the dog dived into the water, and while the owner was "too busy flapping" she darted down the steep and slippery bank to retrieve him - but slipped straight into the river herself.
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"It was probably the worst date ever - maybe because I wasn't feeling him as well, it wasn't a great date," she said.
"It was my first socially-distanced kind of date and I'm just going to wait until things resume so I can be taken out for a nice glass of wine - dog walks are out of the picture for now.
"The funny thing is I'm on Tinder and Bumble having a look and if they've got a dog I'm like 'no Lizzy, don't do it, don't do it' - swipe left.
"I definitely saw the funny side to it - I'm proud that I saved the dog before thinking about my phone and keys, like him.
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"All my friends were like 'it could only happen to you Lizzy' - I have no luck with dating and I just thought I'd share it."
Lizzy didn't even part with her phone or car keys before heading for the river, but luckily she threw them on the bank as she started to slip.
"As the dog jumped in he just panicked and was like 'my dog's never been in water before, omg'," she said.
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"I had to pull the dog out because the owner was too busy flapping. I pushed the dog out and he was just like 'oh, I don't know what to do' and I was like 'don't worry - you just keep the dog out of the river.'
"He said 'here, hold onto the leaves and I'll pull you out' and I was like 'that was the most ridiculous idea I've ever heard - no, that's not going to work'.
"He was like 'here, hold my hand' but I said 'no because you're going to fall in' - it was so muddy and slippery and I was like 'let me just think about this'.
"I took a step to the left in the bank and went even deeper below my boobs, so had to work out how to get out from there.
"I was wearing mini heeled boots so luckily I had some grip and I managed to get my leg quite high up above the water and hook onto a twig and I dug my hands into the bank to find something to grip onto."
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After Lizzy eventually managed to escape the river, the pair had a mega awks 10-minute walk back to their cars, with Lizzy completely drenched.
Two hours later, the date messaged saying: "Hey hope you're alright, sorry about that" with two emojis - but a "traumatised" Lizzy didn't reply and now she believes he has blocked her.
She said: "I got out and asked if my make-up was ok and he was like 'yes, it's fine' - when I looked in the mirror at home I had mud on my face.
"We walked past quite a few families and they looked at me like 'what have you been doing?'.
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"He was like 'I was going to go in, you didn't need to do that - I was going to empty my pockets and then lie down the bank and pull him out'.
"I guess he was trying to be logical whereas I was like there's a dog in the river drowning - I need to get the dog out.
"Thank God I didn't like him - I would have been horrified if I did."
Unsurprisingly, Lizzy has vowed to stick to more conventional dates from now on!
Topics: Life News, Dating, Sex and Relationships