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| Name: |
Kiwi
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Age: |
Seven and a half years old
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| Gender: |
Female |
Breed: |
Labrador Retriever |
| Home: |
Penetanguishene, Ontario, Canada
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I
have a service dog named Kiwi, she is a black Lab. Among Kiwi's
special skills is an emergency 911 where she presses a preprogrammed
button to get help for me. One of many times Kiwi has literally saved
my life was before Christmas in 1999. The amazing thing is that even
tho Kiwi was very ill and we were preparing for her death she still
prevented mine. I decided to take advantage of the fact that my family
was away for the day and do some sneak Christmas shopping. I got
Kiwi's back pack on her and headed out. We lived on a fifty acre farm
in Northern Ontario, Canada. As I went down our portable ramp
something went wrong and I went off the side. As I heard a loud crack
when my head hit the cement and ice I knew I was in big trouble. My
power wheelchair weighing 150 pounds was pinning me and I was very
quickly losing consciousness. I gave Kiwi the phone command hoping
that she could get one of our phones and bring it to me. We had a new
phone system with no preprogrammed 911 button. I heard a loud crash
some scurrying and then moments later my daughters phone was about too
feet away. As I tried to pull myself to the phone I lost
consciousness.
The rest of the story had been told to me by a nurse in the hospital. It
seems that when I lost consciousness, and could not get the phone Kiwi
hit the emergency phone # pad. When they heard Kiwi barking and saw our
number come up on call display they headed out to see what was up. When
the ambulance got to my home Kiwi was lying partially on top of me
keeping me warm. They removed my chair from on top of my body and
covered me up, Kiwi was not convinced I was warm enough and she lay back
where she could keep a close eye on me. She had to be removed physically
to get me on a stretcher. The ambulance and Police debated what to do
with Kiwi as she was obviously my service dog but I was unconscious and
couldn't give her commands. Kiwi solved the dilemma for them by jumping
into the ambulance while they were debating. When we got to the hospital
I was told that a nurse said should someone grab the dog it's not tied
up and the ambulance attendant was heard saying nope that dog isn't
going any where it's master doesn't go. I came in and out of
consciousness for the next 24 hours, I had a head injury. At one point
of coming into consciousness I heard some one saying "come on doggie
here come on "and I asked what was wrong, the nurse said "nothing but
we have been trying to get your dog to go out pee for hours but she
won't come." In a voice I didn't recognize but Kiwi did, I told Kiwi to
release and she went with the nurse , the last thing I heard before
drifting out again was "that is the most amazing dog I have ever
seen."
The next day when my doctor came to check me he wanted to know where the
dog he heard all about was. He also said that I very likely owed my life
to her as the temperature was -8 degrees out side and nobody was
expected home for eight hours. Of course none of this surprises me Kiwi has
always put my life before hers and now that she is ill it is time for me
to put her life before mine. She is retired now and a new lab puppy was
born and came at the end of June to learn from Kiwi to take her place.
This puppy has big shoes to fill, Her name is Sarah and I know being a
lab she already fills those shoes pretty well.
You can check her out at
Kiwi's web site.
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