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Heroes Among Us
By Shelah Norman
Let me state up front that this story has a happy ending.
Let me set the stage—it’s early evening at the Mill Valley Dog Park.
Most evenings my husband and I go for a walk on Mt. Tam but on this particular day, I thought my dog Tulip needed some play time with other dogs. We get to the dog park and lucky for us, Tulip found the perfect playmate in a beautiful Dalmation mix named Gracie. The two dogs were having a grand time together as they both like to wrestle and nip and generally roll around on top of each other.
In their exuberance, Gracie got her lower jaw caught up underneath Tulips’ collar. Both dogs naturally pulled to get loose. The two Moms naturally tried to extricate the dogs. Panic begin to rise and in a freak occurance, both dogs jumped to get away—unfortunately, in opposite directions. This tightened the collar around Gracies jaw and on Tulips end, the collar began to suffocate her.
Many people came to help, primarily a man named Doug, a man named Fred and a woman (I never got her name) who was there with her Rhodisian Ridgeback. It was no use.
The collar, a training collar that slips up over the dogs head, had no break away latch and was too tight to get at. Tulip began losing consciousness and I am devastated beyond belief as I watch the life force leaving my dog.
Finally, we were able to flip Gracie untangling the collar and get the two dogs free of each other. We lay Tulips lifeless body on the ground and I am absolutely destroyed. Then, as if a voice boomed “UNACCEPTABLE”, Doug dropped to the ground and began mouth to snout resusitation on Tulip while Fred pumped at her chest. Doug came up for air and said “keep pumping”. Fred kept pumping at Tulips chest. Doug kept breathing into Tulip snout. This went on for an eternity (from my perspective) and may have been as long as a minute to a minute and a half (in reality). In a moment I can only call a miracle—Tulip came back to us.
We all cried and hugged and clapped as Tulip slowly came back and drank water and eventually stood up. Gracie gave Tulip a big kiss.
Some may call these three people (Doug, Fred and the woman with the Ridgeback) angels or heroes or kind strangers.
Gracies’ Mom and I call them ALL OF THE ABOVE.
p.s. I definitely went and bought a collar with a quick release. Please make sure your animals never find themselves in the same position Tulip was. Also, find out about mouth to snout resusitation and animal CPR at http://members.aol.com/henryhbk/acpr.html