Saving Sally

Stella Brennan and her son Tommy, 6, hug their dog Sally, whom Stella saved from drowning in the family’s backyard pool.

Saving Sally: Local woman resuscitates drowning dog
July 1, 2008

By Karen Mahoney



In this situation, dog's best friend is a woman.

Sally, a 1-year-old golden retriever-Labradoodle mix, is alive today because of the actions of Stella Brennan.

Returning home from work late last week, Brennan let Sally out to run in the yard. After about 10 minutes, Brennan called for Sally, but the dog did not return.

"When she didn't come, I figured she was digging a hole, because she is pretty naughty," she said. "At the same time, I noticed that the cover to the pool that we had just put up was gone."

Knowing that the dog enjoys water, Brennan ran to the 3½-foot above-ground plastic pool. She found Sally tangled inside the cover on the bottom of the pool.


"I began screaming things that would make a sailor blush," confessed Brennan, who managed to hoist the 85-pound dog and cover over the side and onto the ground. "While I was freeing her from the cover, I realized that she was not moving or breathing."

But Brennan recalled a pamphlet she read years ago about rescue breathing for cats, which calls for breathing into a cat's nose.

"Kelly (Brennan's husband) made fun of me when I read it to him because he said that I was the only person he knew that would do that for a cat," she said, "So I remembered that."

Grasping the dog's mouth, Brennan held it closed and breathed into her nose. Nothing happened.

"I thought of my son Tommy, who is 6, and how Sally is his dog, and he loves her more than anything and tried again," she said. "Nothing happened."

Nearly giving up, Brennan's mind began racing about how she was going to break the news to her son, so she took a big breath and gave it one more try.

"Water began spurting out of her mouth; she began to cough and opened her eyes and got up. I couldn't believe she was alive," Brennan said. Meanwhile, Sally ran three circles around the pool, jumped back in and out again.

"I never thought she could jump in the pool. She can't even jump into the car. She gets her front paws on the seat and waits for someone to lift her back legs in. We thought she couldn't jump."

Brennan then called Care Animal Hospital and told her story to office manager Elizabeth Cervantes-Dvorak.

Dvorak said it was the first time she'd received a call regarding successful CPR of a drowning dog.

"I said to her, 'My gosh, you saved your dog's life and you did everything right.' After I said that, Stella began to cry uncontrollably," Dvorak said. "She told me the dog was now running around, and I told her that was good. I gave her some things to watch out for and told her to call me back if she wasn't acting normal."

Dvorak called back later in the day to check on Sally and Stella.

"She reassured me that the dog was OK, and I said that a miracle happened today," she said, "I shared this story with friends all weekend, and they could not believe it either. (Veterinarian) Dr. (Brooke) Lewis said that Stella did exactly the right thing and that she saved the dog's life."

Although Brennan purchased a doggy-sized swimming pool over the weekend, Sally seems to prefer the big one. This is OK with the family, but the pool cover stays off from now on.

"I don't think they sell hard pool covers for this size of pool, so I will simply clean the bugs out of the pool every morning," Brennan said.

Because Brennan, known as a cat lover, was never too fond of canines, she has received a fair share of ribbing since the incident.

"Among other things, my husband asked me if I brushed my teeth," she said, adding, "But he came home early from work to see if I was OK, which was really sweet. And he kissed the dog on the head."

For a grateful Tommy, it is clear - Sally is his best friend, but his mom takes the top spot.

"Sally died, but my mom saved her," he said. "She is my hero."

Stella The Dog Rescuer

Here is a picture of my friend Stella who rescued her son's one year old dog Sally from drowning in the family's swimming pool. She is a total hero--stay tuned for the full story!

Firefighters entertain festgoers

Ryan Denko dips his shoes into the portable water tank used in water fights on Sunday at the Wheatland Fire Department festival in New Munster.

Firefighters entertain festgoers
June 30, 2008
KAREN MAHONEY



NEW MUNSTER - Wheatland firefighters put their ability to the test Sunday, battling other fire departments from Kenosha County and northern Illinois in their annual water fighting competition at the town festival.

Strapping on their boots, helmets and jackets for the tradition, three- to four-member teams grabbed their fire hoses and anxiously awaited the signal.

When the whistle blew, hundreds of gallons of water sprayed in a tug of war to push a metal barrel across the other team's line with their streams of water to victory.

Although only a few spectators got wet in the process, a few of the younger visitors were intentionally wet. One Wheatland resident who wasn't afraid of a little water was 4-year-old Ryan Denko, son of Wheatland firefighter Lou Denko. The soaking wet youngster nearly dove into the portable water tank used to supply water for the fight, to retrieve his plastic clogs.

"Yeah, he's having a great time; just give him a little water and he's a happy camper," Lou Denko said.

Winners of the event are given a trophy, but that isn't what brought Kenosha resident Jim Damask to watch the competition for the first time. Damask, 45, just wanted to see the giant spray of hoses and could barely contain himself when firefighters opened the spigots and began their streams of water.

"This is my first time to see something like this, ever," he said, beaming. "I am excited to see what they do. I love everything to do with the fire departments and the police departments. It is great to be here."

Damask's friend Bob Kundee, a 37-year veteran of the Wheatland Fire Department, was judging this year's competition after many years of participating on the Wheatland team.

"This water fight thing goes back at least 50 years, I think I remember going when I was a kid," he said. "My pal Jimmy is going to love it - he's a good kid. My five kids grew up watching these every year too and we always draw a good crowd."

The fire department water fights concluded the three-day Wheatland Fire Department festival, the largest fund-raiser of the year for the fire department.

In its 39th year, the festival's weekend events included live music, a parade, softball and volleyball tournaments and a chicken barbecue.

I hate my Macbook

So, everyone under the sun convinced me to buy a Macbook because i have had such horrible luck with my windows products. The first Macbook lasted me three weeks before it continued to crash on an hourly basis. The store sent me a new machine --gee, only had to wait THREE weeks to get it. The second machine has been pretty good until today, when I was not able to install the updates to the system. After Seven calls to Tech support, the last guy systematically guided me through the install disks and the disk repair through the utility icons. When that didn't work he told me to go to the genius bar to have the experts look at it. What he didn't say, was that little maneuver made my computer unable to boot up at all. I called tech support again and the !@^*&*^$ calmly said to me, 'oh m'aam, your hard drive has crashed and you have lost all your data' Great--I am a freelance writer and all my work is on that machine and I had not backed up my necessary files today. I told him that had i known this guy was going to wreck my hard drive that I would have backed up before i called. he laughed and said, 'Oh m'aam (in his whiny middle Eastern tone) that guy had nothing to do with your crash.' Funny, everything was working perfectly until i called. I hate Apple too--is there a computer that actually works?

Nice Lawyer--I am beginning to change my opinion

Our new attorney told me that his goal was to change our minds about the legal profession. That, I told him, would be a difficult task as Blaise and I have been turned this way and that, lied to, yelled at, mishandled, and basically treated like an unwanted pair of smelly sneakers for the past two years.

After firing the old group for their devious behavior--we signed on with the new guy on May 21, the two year anniversary of I-Day--what I like to call Injury Day at the Big Home Improvement Store. At first he planned to file that week, but a number of things happened such as getting swamped with cases, named President of the Illinois State Bar, and having to work on an appeals case...so, when we had not heard from him, and he had not filed......I was concerned.

When I called the office and he didn't return any of our calls---I was miffed.

When I sent emails and received no response--I was particularly peeved.

But, and it is a big BUT--he has redeemed himself 100% by following up with phone calls, emails and drum roll please--------he filed our case today! WooHoo--it is the one thing we have been wanting for two years and it is now done! Now, I feel as if we can move forward and yes, Scott---I am beginning to rethink my opinion about the legal profession........

Looking for a new profession-I think

I think I really need to find something else to do with my life. How many people would enjoy a job where they never get a pay raise, never get funds for mileage and yet are supposed to produce more, and produce it faster than when they first began? No, I am not talking about mothering--the world's true oldest profession, I am talking about my life choice as a freelance writer.

Six years I have been writing for a certain newspaper and for six years it has not been enough money. Finally I put my size six foot down and told the powers that be that I am desperate and need some extra cash for gas.

Instead of hearing, 'Oh Karen, you are right--Sorry for overlooking this--we have been in the dark ages for years"--I get ignored--blackballed--left alone with nothing.

That's the way they punish you, by giving you nothing and giving the work to those writers who don't mind driving 45 minutes each way to cover a two hour meeting and then cranking it out in a half hour to meet deadline. All of that for a whopping 55 bucks! Wow, I figured out with the gas and my time that it amounted to about $3 an hour--my 13 year son makes more than that mowing our lawn!

Somebody help me here--before the next words you hear out of my mouth are 'ya want fries with that?"