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Part 1:
Bark! The Hairy Angels Sing...
 RICHLAND,
Wash. (USA) — The costume's not always necessary, but
sometimes a dog just needs to drive the point home. (Photo: Santasuits.com)
On Oct. 29, a canine cherub with wings and a halo appeared out of
the
night and came to the rescue of a woman who had slipped into the
freezing Columbia River. No, the dog didn't exactly come
direct from Heaven; he came from a Halloween party down the street. But to
a dying person, the effect is virtually the same.
At about 8:30pm, "Buoy", a 3½-year-old Yellow Labrador
Retriever, left a Halloween party on Gowen Avenue to take a potty break, according
to his guardian Jim Simpson.
Mr. Simpson told the Tri-City
Herald that Buoy did not immediately return and did not
answer his calls. The man then decided to search for the dog along the footpath at the levee.
At a rocky slope jutting into the river, he found the angel-clad
pooch ministering to
a soul in distress. Ms. Dragica Vlaco, of Wright Avenue, was
on the ground, disoriented, soaking wet and shivering uncontrollably
in the 20ºF temperatures. Buoy was rooted to the spot.
"He's a pretty friendly dog and pretty curious about people.
It's a good thing he went over there," said Mr. Simpson,
crediting Buoy with finding the victim just in time. Her family had been searching for her since 3:00 that
afternoon with no success. Police believe Ms. Vlaco, disoriented
from pain medications for a recent shoulder surgery, walked down to
the levee and fell into the river.
The woman was taken to Kadlec Medical Center, treated for
hypothermia and released over the weekend.
Friends and neighbors rewarded Buoy with plenty of applause and
praise for his amazing work. (That's fine, but I think he was
really after some angel food cake.)
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Part 2:
Angels Wanted. (Species Not Important)
KENNEWICK, Wash. (USA) — "People
who act like angels ought to have angels to deal with," wrote 18th
century novelist Samuel Richardson. But he never said how much
trouble angels can be.
Just a few miles down the Columbia Canal, there was another distress
call. According to the Tri-City Herald, a three-year-old mutt
fell into the water at West 19th Avenue and would've drowned had
11-year-old Sarah Eakin not heard his cries.
"I heard a dog whimpering," Sarah said. "His paws
were bleeding because he had been scratching so hard."
The young girl flagged down a passing motorist, and together they
pulled the 150-pound, exhausted dog out of the irrigation canal.
The pooch was wearing no tags, but Sarah went door-to-door and visited
the Tri-Cities
Animal Control in Richland in order to find his home. The next
day "Coal" was back with the Edmondson family who rewarded Sarah
with $20, a picture of Coal and an invitation to come and play with him
any time.
Sarah's mother Susan Eakin told reporters that it was a bizarre turn of
events that led her daughter to the canal at the precise moment the dog
was drowning. Usually on Sunday mornings Sarah is in church, but
that day she was kicked out for misbehaving.
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(Costume/Photo: Pet
Holiday.)
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"If there are no dogs in Heaven,
then when I die I want to go where they went."
— Will Rogers (1879 - 1935)
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