Now Sit... I Said Sit!

A dog owner in the US state of Maryland says her golden retriever Toby saved her from choking to death by performing the Heimlich manoeuvre.

Debbie Parkhurst, 45, said she was eating an apple at home last Friday when a piece became lodged in her throat and she began to choke.

"The next think I know, Toby's up on his hind feet and he's got his front paws on my shoulders," she told Associated Press.

"He pushed me to the ground, and once I was on my back, he began jumping up and down on my chest."

Ms Parkhurst is recovering from chest and stomach wounds from Toby's jumping.

"I literally have paw print-shaped bruises on my chest. I'm still a little hoarse, but otherwise I'm OK," she said.
...

"The doctor said I probably wouldn't be here without Toby. I keep looking at him and saying, 'You're amazing'."

Ms Parkhurst and Toby have now been asked on to numerous US chat shows.

BBC News

That's garbage-

So she gets to be on TV because her dog is so poorly behaved it knocks her down and jumps on her?

I don't believe it. I believe her dog is poorly behaved, but I don't believe her dog saved her life. Well I don't believe it saved her life as she describes it. Her dog may certainly keep her from taking her own life out of loneliness and desperation, but I don't believe her dog saved her from choking.

But let's suppose it might be true. Forget how unverifiable this is. Her dog did knock her down and jump on her chest, sure.

Her bad dog raising and lonely gluttony led to the happy accident of her eating alone, choking, and her dog jumping, not only on her chest- because that won't quickly dislodge an object from your trachea, but also on her abdomen- hard enough to get that chunk of apple out. And then her dog licked her face because, as I Like Girls could tell you, that's the best way to keep someone from passing out or dying from asphyxiation.

Big deal.

We'll say it's true- but why is it a good story to tell? Dogs have been to space. Dogs have called 911. Dogs built the Eiffel tower. My dogs kept me from bleeding to death and reattached my severed thumb.

I nearly sliced off my left thumb while learning to juggle. Thankfully Chelsea had the presence of mind to knock me down, elevate my arm and apply pressure to my radial artery. Then Lily licked my wounds clean, (their mouths are cleaner than ours) applied a local anesthetic to my thumb, reconnected the internal structures, and did one of the cleanest suturing jobs anyone has ever seen on the top side of my thumb, though you can clearly see the suture tracts on the ventral side. What do you expect? She's a dog.

That's a dog saving your life story.

I have a scar on my thumb and dog hair on my shirt to prove it.