Earlier this month, Galina Ruban was spending the day boating with friends near Jupiter, Florida, when the group spotted something unusual moving through the water.
At first, the small furry face above the surface made them think they were looking at an otter. But as they got closer, they noticed a pair of long ears — and realized the swimmer was actually a rabbit.
“He was in the middle of the inlet,” Ruban later wrote on Facebook.
Ruban, a video producer and founder of GeGe Productions, recorded the surprising encounter as it unfolded.
No one knows exactly how the rabbit ended up so far from land. Some people have suggested that a bird of prey may have picked him up and accidentally dropped him into the water.
Whatever brought him there, Ruban and her companions were concerned that the exhausted rabbit might not be able to reach safety on his own.
So the group stepped in to help, bringing the little animal aboard their boat and giving him a ride back to dry land.
Ruban later shared the happy outcome online.
“So we saved the little guy,” she wrote, adding, “I think we got there just in time.”