The woman who plunged into an icy Central Park lake to rescue her pet pooch feared for her life in the frigid water — but is still doggone sure she did the right thing.
Katalin Levay, 49, said Monday that “it felt like forever” before cops fished her from the Harlem Meer after the ice gave way beneath her.
“Where I fell in, it was the very edge. Had it broken under me in the middle, I don’t know what would have happened,” she said.
“I could have died there.”
Levay, of Harlem, said she didn’t hesitate to clamber onto the partially frozen lake to rescue Taz, her 7-month-old Hungarian Pumi, when he slipped through a hole in the ice Sunday morning.
“I’m responsible for this little creature and he was losing steam, paddling in one place and not being able to get back on the ice,” she said of her headline-making (above) heroics. “I can’t watch him die.”
But when the ice cracked beneath her, Levay admitted, “It was one of my horrors from childhood.”
Once in the water, Levay desperately held onto her shaggy buddy and screamed for help as she struggled to stay afloat.
“Somebody threw a life preserver at one point when I was close enough.”
Levay, a professional dog walker and trainer, said the ordeal unfolded when Taz slipped his leash to chase a flock of birds,
She was walking a total of five dogs at the time, and said the other four all stayed put during her daring rescue.
“They listened,” Levay said.
“They were told to stay and I left my backpack right there. Also, they are very nice friendly dogs so whoever went to get them I knew they would not cause them any harm.”
“We got home, we got warm and then I took them home,” she added.