Pretty good story here. Did not know a dog could be saved like this. Being that a lot of us have our dogs along fishing I thought it might be of interest….
St Paul Pioneer Press Website Story
Posted on Tue, Jul. 27, 2004
Canine CPR saves family’s dog
Lab nearly drowned in Minnesota lake
Associated Press
FARGO, N.D. — A man whose dog nearly drowned in a Minnesota lake says he didn’t think twice about performing CPR on his pet.
“She’s part of the family,” said Matt Tollefson of Fargo. “If she’s going to go, she wasn’t going to go like that.”
Family members said they knew something was wrong when they saw the dog’s tennis ball floating in the water on July 19. The 3-year-old chocolate Labrador retriever named Maddy had been missing for a few minutes on Pelican Lake in Otter Tail County.
Maddy was tangled in a 10-foot rope securing a floating trampoline at Tollefson’s parents’ lake home.
Tollefson dived after her.
“It took me a couple seconds just to get the rope off her,” he said. “It seemed like forever.”
Maddy’s body was lifeless, her eyes were open and her tongue hung to the side of her mouth.
“There was nothing to her. She was as limp as could be,” Tollefson said.
When he couldn’t find a heartbeat, Tollefson began CPR, alternating compressions on her chest and blowing air in through her snout.
“Instincts just took over at that point,” he said.
Tollefson said he took a first responders course in college but is not sure how he knew to blow air through her nose. He said he may have seen it on TV.
Two minutes after Tollefson began performing CPR, Maddy showed signs of life, he said.
The family took Maddy to the veterinarian the next day, where she was diagnosed with aspiration pneumonia and a chip fracture in her shoulder from the compressions.
The dog is a little swollen and is taking two steam baths a day to help her recovery. She also is on antibiotics.
Tollefson’s wife, Karen Tollefson, said she often refers to Maddy as her daughter and would have been lost if the dog had died. She said their two young sons, ages 5 and 2, are happy the dog is OK and are proud of their father, though they may not entirely understand what happened.
“I think we were more traumatized,” she said. “Kids bounce back.” She noticed her husband had become closer to the dog when he began calling home daily to remind her to kiss Maddy for him.
“Maybe she doesn’t, but it seems like she looks at me differently,” Matt Tollefson said. “She’s still the same dog. There’s just more of a bond now.”
I didn’t know that was possible. What a lucky dog!
