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Deputy Resuscitates Dog; Postal Worker's Porcupine-Feces Attack

F O R T P I E R C E, Fla. — St. Lucie County Sheriff's Deputy Dennis Stonecipher had the chance to repay man's best friend last Wednesday, giving the kiss of life to a beagle mix named Max who had been accidentally choked by his leash.

"I didn't even think about it; I knew I had to do something for him," Stonecipher said. "I just took that big old nose — it wasn't very pleasant."

The dog-loving deputy was working at the county Tax Collector's Office last week when a passer-by rushed in to say that a dog had apparently fallen out of the window of a parked pickup and was dangling by its leash.

The owner was nowhere to be found.

"It was horrible seeing him hanging there," Stonecipher said. "I got him lose and checked him over."

The 8-year-old hound's eyes were dilated and he was not breathing. "He was basically already gone," Stonecipher said.

The deputy's dogged determination led him to try cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the animal, however. He couldn't find a way to channel the air into Max's mouth, so breathed directly into his snout. Stonecipher had never performed CPR in the field before.

"I cleared his airways and gave him mouth-to-snout," Stonecipher said. He performed chest compressions in between breaths.

After about five minutes, it started to work.

"I started to get a little response — a little gurgle," the 10-year department veteran said.

Just a few weeks earlier, Stonecipher's own pet — a miniature dachshund named Boo-Boo — had to be put down. He was grateful for the chance to help someone else's dog.

Stonecipher said he was hoping this weekend to go visit Max, who is reportedly making a speedy recovery.

-- Anonymous, December 20, 2001