Hero pooches given just rewards
Published: April 25, 2006
Schmichael is a keeper when it comes to saving his family’s lives.
At the 38th annual Purina Animal Hall of Fame awards ceremony held yesterday at a downtown Toronto hotel, the mixed-breed was honoured for saving his owners, the Giffin family of Bath, Ont., from a house fire on April 25, 2005.
Dan Giffin said his family had just adopted Schmichael - named after the international Danish football goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel and a pet on the long-running English soap Coronation Street - earlier that day.
When he got home from work about 1:30 a.m., Giffin said he noticed the pup seemed agitated.
Thanks to the dog’s cries, Giffin said he looked out the window to see their barn was “glowing red” and about to collapse.
Giffin, his wife Tracie and their three children - Cole, 12, Spencer, 10, and Sarah, 7 - managed to escape the house before it too caught fire.
Not to be outdone, three other pooches were also honoured.
Calgary Police Service dog, Odin, an eight-year-old German shepherd, along with his handler Const. Bill Dodd helped capture an armed and dangerous suspect who tried to shoot a fellow police officer during a drug takedown in March 2004.
Samuri, a blind six-year-old Akita, alerted his Winnipeg owners, Jo-Ann and Don Drozdowski, that their neighbour Kathy Arnold, 25, suffered a stroke and collapsed.
Teddy Bear, a one-year-old Pomeranian, persistently sniffed and pawed at his owner’s right breast until she had it checked out. Georgina Bramwell had cancer.
Including this year’s inductees, 129 animals have been honoured by Purina.
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