Category: Heroes

News Reporter Rescues Dog Stolen from Restaurant

Stopping for lunch near Houston on their way home from a road trip last weekend, Andrew Mathias and his family tied their 4-year-old Golden Retriever, Lucy, to a tree in the restaurant’s parking lot. They assumed she’d be safe and cool in this shady spot.

They were sadly mistaken. When they left the restaurant, Lucy was gone. A surveillance camera captured footage of a woman untying Lucy, taking her to a truck and then driving away.

After viewing the footage, Matt Dougherty, a reporter with CBS affiliate station KHOU in Houston, decided to do his best to find Lucy.

Fortunately, the truck’s license plate was visible in the footage. Dougherty was able to get the truck owner’s address and, accompanied by a KHOU news crew, went to her home in New Caney, Texas.

There were a lot of dogs on the property. When Dougherty asked the man who answered the door if there was a woman there “who collects dogs,” the man said she was his cousin.

Dougherty and the news crew took Lucy and contacted authorities. The reporter also made a FaceTime video phone call to Mathias.

“Well, I don’t want to bury the lead — I’ll go ahead and let you know,” Dougherty told him. “We’ve got somebody in the back seat with us.” Mathias and his family were thrilled when they saw it was Lucy.

Later, as Polk County Pct. 2 Constable Bill Cunningham watched, Lucy was reunited with her overjoyed family.

Mathias told KHOU he’ll never leave Lucy unattended in public again.

Perhaps the dognapper’s heart was in the right place: She thought Lucy had been abandoned outside the restaurant, her two children who were inside the truck at the time told KHOU in a follow-up story.

Lucy “was looking confused,” a 13-year-old boy told KHOU. There was “a lot of saliva coming out of her mouth, so we thought oh, she’s super thirsty.” (The Mathias family said they had left a bowl filled with water next to their dog.)

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the case. The woman and her children hope the Mathias family will forgive them. “We’re so sorry if you guys thought that we stole it,” the boy told KHOU. “We didn’t do it for bad intentions. We did it for a good cause, because we thought it was abandoned.”

Here’s some advice for this woman and anyone else who sees a dog in a similar situation: It’s a good idea to check inside the restaurant first to see if the owner is there before taking any action.

Photos: KHOU 11/YouTube

Good Samaritan Rescues Lost Dog Hanging from Cord Near Freeway

As David Fredman drove to work Monday morning along busy Interstate 70 in Independence, Mo., he was shocked by what he saw beside an overpass.

A dog had been tied with an electrical cord to a power box. His feet barely reached the ground as he struggled to free himself from the cord digging into his neck.

Fredman immediately pulled over, called 911 and used a knife to cut the dog free. “The way I found him, I just couldn’t believe somebody would do that to an animal at all,” he told WDAF.

“As soon as I cut him down, he couldn’t breathe. He was trying to breathe,” Fredman said. “I tried get him to walk. He couldn’t walk.”

Fredman rushed the dog to KC Pet Project, a nonprofit animal shelter in Kansas City, Mo.

It turned out that the dog was microchipped. His name is Max and he’s 16 years old. He had escaped from his yard earlier that morning and his owner, Dee Vaughn, had been looking for him for hours.

There was no way Max, who has difficulty walking, could have made it all the way to the I-70 a mile away on his own, Vaughn said. It’s unclear yet whether someone intentionally tried to hang Max or just made a very bad decision to tie him to the power box. Surveillance cameras may be able to reveal what happened.

Vaughn, like Fredman, was shocked when he saw a photo of Max hanging from the power box. “Literally you could see the imprint around his neck where they hung him,” he told WDAF.

Max is now safely back at home and, after this ordeal, will probably never want to wander off again. Vaughn is grateful that Fredman went above and beyond to rescue him.

“Thank you, David, so much,” Vaughn told him, according to WDAF. “You stopped what you were doing to turn around and save my dog’s life.”

Photo: CBS 17/YouTube

17-Year-Old Deaf Dog Rescued After Spending 4 Days in Ravine

Sadie was on a walk in Connecticut’s Sleeping Giant State Park last Saturday afternoon when the deaf, 17-year-old Chesapeake Bay Retriever slipped out of her collar and took off.

To the horror of her dog dad, Chris Roush, Sadie went over the side of a hill…and then disappeared. When Roush couldn’t find her, he enlisted the help of friends, family and social media to help search for Sadie. He posted fliers all around the 1,500-acre state park.

Although Roush, who’s the new dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University, had just moved to the town the week before, strangers were more than happy to help him and his family find their beloved dog.

They “just started volunteering,” Roush told the Hartford Courant. “People I never knew and had never met came out to help. The community response was just unbelievable.”

Even Judy Olian, the president of Quinnipiac University, allowed the school’s drone to be used to try to locate Sadie.

Good Samaritans to the Rescue

But what wasn’t at all helpful was a storm that blew into town four days after Sadie went missing. Fortunately, Steve Tobey was searching for Sadie in the rain when he heard a dog whimpering near a trail not far from where she’d disappeared at Sleeping Giant. Soon after he posted it on social media, Toby Drums and Russell Lewis — who don’t know Roush — also started hiking around the area where the dog was heard.

Lewis, who often hikes with his own dogs in the state park, had been figuring that the worst had happened to the 17-year-old, deaf dog.  “But then this (new) post, I was just really excited and that’s what got me out there despite the storms,” he told the Hartford Courant.

Drums and his wife also have four dogs who they’ve walked in the park for years. Wearing headlamps, the couple had searched for Sadie every night after work. “We’re dog people and they’re getting older and to hear about a 17-year-old dog, deaf, lost in the woods is heartbreaking,” Drums told the New Haven Register.

As Drums and Lewis walked along a trail in the rain Wednesday, Drums heard Sadie barking. In the meantime, Roush had seen the hiker’s post and rushed to the park, joining Lewis, Drums and the others.

Sadie had fallen between boulders. To locate her, the group lowered Lewis by his ankles headfirst into a crevice.

“It was ridiculous, but I heard her crying so I started crawling a little bit deeper,” Lewis told the Hartford Courant. “She’s really, really deep in there and she’s wedged in between these two rocks; you could just see her back.”

It took a village, but the group was finally able to cautiously free Sadie from her predicament. The Hamden Fire Department soon arrived to help the rescuers.

A Tale of ‘Survival, Perseverance and More Than a Little Luck’

“This is a story of survival, perseverance and more than a little luck!” the Hamden Fire Department wrote on its Facebook page the day after Sadie was rescued.

Despite her ordeal, Sadie is expected to make a full recovery. She received treatment for cuts, scratches and dehydration at VCA Cheshire Animal Hospital. “From what the vet told me, it looked like she had been trying to dig out,” Roush told the New Haven Register.

As for the Roushes, they’re eternally grateful not only to have Sadie back but for all the compassionate volunteers who helped them find her.

“How lousy is it to move to a new place and lose your dog in the first week?” Lewis told the Hartford Courant. “But so many people stepped up to help and that’s the coolest part of the story to me.”

Photo: Hamden Fire Department/Facebook

Firefighters Rush Dog Injured in Car Crash to Animal Hospital

If you’re going to be involved in a rollover crash with your dog beside you in your vehicle, one of the best places to end up would be near firefighters in a fire station, right?

That’s exactly what happened to a man who was driving with his Australian Shepherd in an SUV along a road in Canyon Country, Calif. He apparently somehow lost control, and the SUV crashed and rolled over. It landed on its side on the lawn of Los Angeles County Fire Station 128.

The firefighters ran out, pulled the man from the wreckage, and rushed him to a hospital in an ambulance.

Meanwhile, the Australian Shepherd had managed to jump out a window and was trying to hide near some stairs. The firefighters were able to successfully coax him onto a stretcher and took him, in another ambulance, to a nearby animal hospital in Santa Clarita. Their compassionate efforts were captured on video.

Both the man and his dog are in critical condition, according to the firefighters. If the car hadn’t ended up where it did, neither of the accident victims may have survived.

“Three of us worked together not only to provide care to the hurt Australian Shepherd but to also provide timely transportation to a local veterinary clinic,” Los Angeles County Fire Battalion Chief Nick Berkuta told CBS Los Angeles. “To have fire resources available immediately allowed for us to provide him with the best possible that we can.”

According to CBS Los Angeles, the dog wasn’t restrained inside the SUV. Being tossed around so violently during the crash probably contributed to his injuries — an important reason why it’s never a good idea to leave your dog unsecured in your vehicle. But do be aware that most car restraints for pets failed crash tests in a 2011 study by the non-profit Center for Pet Safety, perhaps because there currently are no government or industry standards for these safety devices. Still, it’s safer to use a restraint since it can prevent your dog from becoming a projectile, not only injuring himself but other passengers in the vehicle.

Here’s wishing the man and the Australian Shepherd speedy recoveries. Many thanks to the heroes at Los Angeles County Fire Station 128 for making sure they were both quickly treated for their injuries.

Photo: CBS Los Angeles/YouTube

Elderly Florida Man Rescues Golden Retriever from Alligator

As Buddy Ackerman was out for predawn walk in Palm Harbor, Fla., earlier this week with Oso, his daughter’s Golden Retriever, an 8-foot-long alligator slithered out from a retention pond and snatched Oso.

Ackerman was using a retractable leash to walk Oso, so he didn’t see the alligator attack as the dog was taking a potty break near the pond — but he heard Oso whimpering.

“He was squealing a good bit when the thing grabbed him,” Ackerman, a 75-year-old grandfather, told ABC Action News. “Me, I’m a nervous wreck, I go up and slip and fall on my rear end, and the two of us are tugging. Alligator is going one way, I’m going the other.”

Although it may not seem like the safest thing to do, Ackerman did just what many pet parents, or parents of pet parents, might do in such a horrible situation. He immediately began kicking the alligator’s snout. It worked: The gator “opened its mouth real wide and backed up a little,” Ackerman told ABC Action News. It dropped Oso and crawled back into the pond.

Speaking of not being the safest thing to do, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) warns residents not to allow their pets to swim, exercise or drink in or near waters that may contain alligators.

It’s also important to note that some veterinarians and animal welfare experts are opposed to retractable leashes because they can be dangerous. “There are many reasons to avoid or reconsider the use of a retractable leash,” writes Dr. Marty Becker, “starting with the fact that on this type of leash, your dog can get far enough away from you to either get into trouble or into harm’s way” — as Oso and Ackerman so scarily discovered. These leashes can also cause injuries to dogs and people, “from superficial burns and cuts to horrific amputations,” Becker writes.

The good news is that neither Oso or Ackerman suffered any serious injuries during the attack. As for the gator, Ackerman called the FWC’s Statewide Nuisance Alligator Program (SNAP) hotline and reported it. An alligator that looked like Oso’s attacker was trapped by wildlife officials later that day.

Ackerman’s daughter, Jody, says her dad is a hero. “Osi and I are so very grateful that nobody was hurt,” she told ABC Action News.

“I’m chalking it up to good luck,” Ackerman told the Tampa Bay Times. “I was worried more about my daughter and how she would feel.”

Photo: @abcactionnews/Twitter

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