I agree with our friends Twiggy, Daisy, Lily and Coco that stories like this one make you remember there ARE good humans out there!
Hi, Joy! We love your blog and wanted to share the following story with you. Amid all the horror stories of people mistreating dogs, this proves there are good peeps out there. Keep up the good work! Twiggy, Daisy, Lily and Coco
Thanks Twiggy, Daisy, Lily and Coco! Here’s the article from The News Star.
‘CPR dog’ gains attention from national media
By Stacy TempleMindy Lou likes to snuggle in the crook of her mom’s arm and looks longingly at the car when asked if she wants to go “bye-bye.”
A caring firefighter and an oxygen tank saved the Miniature Pinscher’s life after she and her “sister” Miss Molly Brown were rescued from a burning mobile home on Friday.
Since then, the story of the “CPR dog” has played on 194 news Web sites, newspapers and TV stations around the U.S. and Canada.
On Tuesday, the Lewis family began sifting through the remains of their home to see what they could salvage and said they are overwhelmed by the media coverage of their beloved pooches.
“It is unbelievable,” homeowner Linda Lewis said. “Mindy is lucky. When he pulled her out of her crate, she was dead.“Molly has health problems, so I figured she wouldn’t make it, but she hid under the covers and was fine.”
Linda Lewis lived at her home at 523 Bawcom St. in West Monroe with her daughter, Kilee Lewis, and grandsons, Colby and Gabe Lewis.
On Friday, Linda Lewis, a Ouachita Parish School system employee, was sent home early in anticipation of a wintry storm moving through the area. She headed to Wal-Mart for supplies, and Kilee Lewis left the family home to pick up her boys from school.
When Kilee returned, an electrical short in the back-porch light had caused a blaze, and the two dogs were trapped inside.
“I had just gotten home and saw the smoke at the back of the house,” Kilee Lewis, said. “I made it to the laundry room and something fell on my arm. I tried to get the dogs, but the fire was just blazing. I had to turn around before I got hurt.”
Ouachita Parish firefighters responded to the scene. When Stephen “Odie” Odom questioned Kilee and learned of the dogs’ whereabouts, he entered the home and searched the fire-filled room, locating Mindy in a crate.
He brought her out and went back in the room in search of Molly. He found her tucked under the blankets in her “mom’s” bed, where she stays when Linda works.
Odom picked up Molly and took her to Kilee. When he got out of the burning house, he found that Mindy was not breathing.
Odom performed CPR on the dog, which weighs only 3 or 4 pounds. When that didn’t seem to work, he used his oxygen tank to get her breathing.
It worked.
Mindy barks at people when they pull up into the driveway and looks up at her mother while being held, casually licking Linda Lewis on the nose.
Odom was contacted on Tuesday by multiple media outlets and said he never knew doing his job would bring him so much attention.
“I am tickled, I am telling you,” Odom said. “I am just amazed by this dog because I thought she was dead. I can’t tell you the number of
humans I have worked on that didn’t make it. It was snowing hard at the time of the fire. That is one of those days you don’t forget.”
Linda Lewis said she is thankful no one was injured in the fire, but now comes the difficult task of fixing her home.
She is the sole provider for the family and did not have insurance at the time of the fire. The Northeast Louisiana Chapter of the American Red Cross paid for three nights of hotel stay and provided money for food and clothes.
