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June 25, 2005

Mack's My Hero

From: News & Star - Carlisle,Cumbria,UK - Jun 25, 2005

By Fiona MacLeod

A HERO dog has won a national award for saving the life of a 71-year-old deaf grandmother from a runaway truck.

Little Mack the poodle, who stands less than 2ft tall, pulled profoundly deaf Edna Hind out of the path of a lorry which had mounted a pavement in Wigton.

The Kirkbride OAP said: "I was walking around the corner near the Granary café when Mack yelped and jumped.

"He sort of pulled me sideways – he isn't strong enough really to pull me – but he caught me off-guard and I lost my footing."

Thanks to Mack's quick thinking the Edna fell into a doorway – missing the truck by just inches last October.

She said: "I hurt my shoulder and thought what was that for? Then I saw this lorry.

"It was right on the pavement and only just missed me – it didn't stop, just kept going on towards Silloth.

"A woman appeared shouting Mack's praises – she thought I'd gone under the lorry."

Two-year-old Mack received his certificate through the post this week for being Heroic Hearing Dog of the Year 2005.

He was given special merit for his initiative after an unknown person nominated him for the Hearing Dogs society award. Edna said she was stunned by Mack's actions:

"He's not been trained to do that at all."

Since then Mack has gone on to make another lifesaving rescue. Edna revealed: "During the storms in January the bird table fell over.

"He came and touched me and when I asked him to show me he took me over to it.

"I went round the back and there was a little blue tit tangled in the netting.

"I cut him free, and after a couple of hops it had a rest and then flew away."

Super-dog Mack has been trained to respond to the door bell, the phone ringing and the cooker timer.

Edna said: "He comes for all of them and touches me and then takes me to the noise.

"For smoke and fire alarms he touches me and he lies down because he can't take me to it because he could be taking me into danger."

Mack is Edna's second hearing dog since she was declared profoundly deaf – without her digital hearing aids she cannot hear her own voice.

Mack has now lived with Edna for a year and she believes that her special pet is a dog in a million.

She said: "He's my best friend and I don't know what I would do without him."

© 2005 News & Star