IN what can only be described as a heroic act, a golden retriever managed to save his owner’s life by lying on top of him for almost 24 hours to keep him from freezing to death after slipping on ice and breaking his neck.

    On New Year’s Eve, 64-year-old Bob (who chose not to reveal his last name for privacy reasons), of Petoskey, Michigan, the U.S., was watching the Fiesta Bowl between Clemson and Ohio State. It was around 10:30 p.m. when he decided to go outside and fetch some more wood for his fireplace wearing only long johns, slippers and a shirt. He had taken the short walk to the firewood shed thousands of times before, but this time his poor choice of footwear made him slip, and the fall left him unable to move. The man started screaming for help, but his closest neighbor’s house is about 400 meters away, and at that hour, there was no one around to help him. Luckily, his 5-year-old golden retriever came to help.

    “I was screaming for help, but my nearest neighbor is about a quarter-mile away and it was 10:30 p.m., but my Kelsey came,” Bob recalls.

    Bob remained paralyzed in the snow for the next 20 hours, in temperatures as low as 24 degrees Fahrenheit. During this time, Kelsey did everything in her power to keep him alive, including laying on top of him to keep him warm and constantly licking his face and hands to help keep him awake. After about 19 hours, Bob lost consciousness, but Kelsey kept barking and howling for help.

    Despite the dog’s best efforts, Bob was probably going to freeze to death, if his neighbor Rick didn’t hear Kelsey’s desperate howling. “She was letting out this screeching howl that alerted my neighbor,” Bob said.

    (SD-Agencies)