Kiko's Korner

A puppy hero called Honey

…Selling real estate may be a tough call. There was the heart attack a couple of months ago, and then the car crash.

Luck may be a lady for some, but for Michael Bosch, of Nicasio, Calif., luck is a gangly-legged, floppy-eared cocker spaniel puppy, that comes on the run to the name of Honey.

Tail-wagging puppies are supposed to be more interested in hugs, good leather shoes and bone-shaped cookies. But Honey, a-few-months-old-going-on-5, is a proven true-life hero.

Bosch, a 63-year-old real-estate broker, was backing down his driveway off Nicasio Valley Road recently, when his car slipped 50 feet down an 80-degree slope, pinning him in the overturned vehicle.

The only eyewitness to the frightening scene was the silky-haired Honey, who promptly escaped the vehicle, climbed up the slope--and stayed the course to be there when a neighbour arrived home that night.

Meanwhile Honey’s favourite person had to suffer the anxiety of an eight-hour wait in the car before finally being extricated by firefighters, who had to use the Jaws of Life just to get to him. The injured Bosch was flown via helicopter to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital to be treated for five broken ribs and leg injuries and was later transferred to Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in San Rafael.

Bosch has scratches on his face and arms and at the time of this writing remains in bed due to swelling in his left leg, but he is happy to be alive, having suffered a heart attack just two months before the car accident.

How Honey came to be in Bosch’s life is a story more romantic than anything the Lonely Hearts Club could provide.

Bosch had been in touch with the Marin Humane Society for more than a year about adopting a dog before going there to look at a Labrador retriever rescued from Hurricane Katrina. The Lab was nice, but Honey won his heart from the moment he laid eyes on her.

Amazingly, Honey had only been in Bosch’s life two weeks before the accident happened.

In hospital, a coworker from the real estate office brought Honey to see his master along with some Godiva chocolates, some dog biscuits and a stuffed toy superhero, complete with an eye mask and cape for Honey to play with.

Honey ignored the stuffed version in favour of the hero in the hospital bed.

Placed on the bed, she repeatedly licked her hero’s face, and took breaks by roaming daintily around the bedding.

"All my pain went away," said her proud and soothed master.

Born with her tail wagging and those soulful brown eyes that are the signature of the cocker spaniel, Honey, not even potty trained and in her new owner’s life just a tad over two weeks, saved his life.

Like so many animals, Honey was born a hero.