Heroic dog is this British lady's best friend

[Max]

Heroic dog is this British lady's best friend

May 21 2003 at 01:24AM



London - Orca, a young golden retriever who completed his training eight weeks ago, persisted in his efforts to attract a passer-by's attention to his paralysed owner, who was lying with a heavy motorised wheelchair on top of her in a ditch, in which the water level was rising during heavy rain.

Undeterred by an unsuccessful first attempt - in which he slipped away from a man who thought he was a stray and tried to take him home - Orca found a jogger and jumped up and down until he followed him.

Peter Harrison found 22-year-old Cheryl Smith, a chemistry student, lying under her machine, which weighs 150kg.

Smith had been enjoying a Sunday afternoon outing near her home in York when her wheelchair hit a brick on the track and plunged six metres down an embankment, pinning her in the water.

'I owe him everything'
Orca ran for help.

After his failed first attempt, the dog ran back to its increasingly desperate owner, who has a neurological illness.

"When he came back without anyone I began to give up hope. I thought he had just been chasing animals around in the woods or something," Smith told the Daily Telegraph.

"I was lying there for what must have been about two hours and it was pouring with rain and hailstones. There was a foot of water in the ditch, and I was being pushed down into the thick mud below it."

Harrison summoned the emergency services and Smith was treated at York hospital for mild hypothermia.

"It frightens me to think what would have happened if Orca had not been there. I owe him everything," Smith said. - Sapa-DPA



This article was originally published on page 3 of The Cape Times on May 21, 2003




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