GLENDALE, AZ – A miniature schnauzer is credited with saving his owner’s life.

“You’re thinking you’re going to die,” said Bethe Bennett from her hospital bed at Banner Thunderbird Medical Center with her dog still by her side.

Last Friday, Bennett fell in her kitchen, broke her femur, and passed out.

“I would still be there,” she said. “Nobody was coming to check on me until Monday or Tuesday.”

Bennett’s service dog, Danny, licked her face until she awoke.

“I asked him to get me the phone,” she said.

Danny hasn’t picked up the phone with his teeth in years, she told ABC15, but he still remembered what to do after some coaching.

“It took him a few minutes,” Bennett said, “he was going back and forth.”

Danny eventually brought Bennett the phone, which she used to call 911.

“I never dreamed he would save my life.”

Bennett, who writes books about her dogs under the penname Bessie Mac, said she now plans to write future tales about Danny.

NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT — While everyone was able to safely escape a fire Saturday at Da Legna restaurant in New Haven, something special was left behind in the rubble.

To those watching the flames rip through the State Street apartments, above the restaurant, it was obvious there would be some major damage. However, once the fire was out and crews started tearing the apartments down they found a surprise.

“All of a sudden a big pit bull sat up in the middle of the debris,” said Kevin Plummer of United Cleaning and Restoration. “We grabbed him by the collar and brought him down to the ground. He didn’t bark. He didn’t growl. He’s a good dog.”

The pit bull, named Spooky, was immediately taken across the street to the animal hospital.

Another dog, named Mona, and a cat, Sammy, were rescued from the fire and all three are on oxygen from the fire. Their owner was hospitalized after a car crash last week, and wasn’t home at the time of the blaze.

Three cats didn’t make it out.

“It does injure the lungs where they can’t process oxygen and they can’t breathe as well,” said veterinarian Kim MacDonald. “It predisposes them to other problems like pneumonia.”

The workers are still amazed they saw Spooky staring at them. The dog was able to survive the fire and frigid weather by hiding in a closet.

“Everything else you can replace, but an animal is like a child,” said Plummer.

The workers feel for Spooky’s owner who lost their apartment and the owner of Da Legna, which has only been open around a month after taking over the former Amato’s Pizza, but they’re hoping Spooky will remind them something good always comes out of something bad.

“It just put a nice sunshine on a little bit of a gloomy day,” said Pat Deleva of Cherry Hill Restoration.

The State Street neighborhood is rallying around the owner of the apartment, whose name is Mike Simonelli, a veteran, who was in a car accident on Friday, and in serious condition in the hospital when his apartment caught fire on Saturday.

“He is a really good guy,” said Lisa Siedlarz, of New Haven, “He served our country. He has lived here a really long time and to have this happen it is a series of tragic events.”

While the animals recover in the vet clinic, Simonelli is recovering in the hospital. Neighbors are hoping everyone will be released soon.

In the meantime, neighbors are raising money for the vet bill and already have more than $1,000.

“On top of that there are people out there who want to donate items for Mike because he lost everything,” said Siedlarz. “We have kitchenware lined up, we need to find out more about clothing size. People are really stepping up for this.”

And here’s a second, older video of another rescue by a different group of men.

Sadie (left) ran to the aid of her 7-pound friend when the little dog was attacked by an owl. Shown here with the family's rottie, Eli.

ILLINOIS — When a 70-pound boxer named Sadie saw a great horned owl drop out of the sky and sink its talons into her 7-pound Shih-Tzu/miniature poodle mix friend, Ramadi, she leapt into action to try to save the tiny pooch from the owl’s clutches.

The dogs’ owners heard barking in the back yard and they went to check on what was going on. It was dark but they could see that Sadie was on top of something. Then Ramadi came running inside, dragging that something, with Sadie chasing after it. When they got near enough, their owners could see the odd parade up close:

There was little Ramadi, and attached to her was an owl. And attached to the owl was Sadie, who was trying to help get the owl off her friend. They pried Sadie off the owl, and someone pinned the owl to the floor with a foot while someone else ran to get some thick gloves.

It took some work to detach the owl from the dog, but miraculously the dog was not injured. Her owners think it was her thick coat that kept her safe. That and he friend Sadie, who probably prevented the owl from really digging in. Then they shut the owl outside.

But it was not the last they would see of the raptor.

“The owl stood outside the sliding glass door looking at the smaller dog as if he wasn’t leaving without it,” said Pingree Grove (Ill.)Police Sgt. Rich Blair. That could be pretty creepy for the little dog.

The officers were able to capture the bird in a fishing net and turn it over to a rehab center. Sadly, it turned out that bird had significant injuries consistent with trauma from a car accident. Rehab veterinarians said the bird was extremely thin and its eye was terribly infected. They euthanized the owl because they said there was no hope for rehabilitation.

The owl’s injuries could have explained why it went after a dog.

“Most of the time they want nothing to do with humans or dogs,” said Sandy Fejt, education site manager at Willowbrook Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center. “With its sight impaired it was probably very hungry and looking for easy prey.” Poor owl.

Ramadi was not the only canine victim of owl attacks in the town recently. The attack on Ramadi was the third time in three days that an owl had gone after a dog; one dog died. It was likely the same owl.

The dogs of Pingree Grove can probably breathe a little easier now. But it would have been a happier ending if the owl had lived and would be back to its normal, canine-free cuisine after healing.

William Tuttle, 45, crawled across the frozen surface in Fountain, Colorado after fearing Brock was drowning.

But, just as he reached the dog, the ice gave way and the father-of-two plunged into the freezing water.

He had just enough time to throw the animal to the shore but rescuers took 90 minutes to get Mr Tuttle back on to dry land.

The victim, who had been walking alone with the dog, was rushed by ambulance to Memorial Hospital but died a short time later.

His distraught daughter Megan, 19, said her only comfort is that her father’s last words were to tell her he loved her.

‘I told him I love him too,’ she told KRDO News 13. ‘It’s so hard. He’s not here anymore. He was such a great man.

‘You would never see him without a smile on his face. He was always so happy. He would help anybody out if they needed it.’

His son Taylor, 16, said he was proud his father, adding: ‘He’s my angel right now. He is. It wasn’t stupid. He did what he had to do.’

It is not known whether Brock was let off his leash or simply slipped out of Mr Tuttle’s before dashing on to the thin ice.

The father’s first instinct was to save the animal, who had only been brought into the nearby family home three weeks ago.

Casey O’Malley, who was fishing at the Willow Springs Pond, told KKTV 11 News: ‘He got down on his hands and knees, and then walked out towards and to the dog.

‘At that point the owner did fall through the ice. He and the dog struggled for a second. The owner was able to get the dog up onto the ice.’

A woman who was close found a stick and tried to pull Mr Tuttle from the freezing water but was unable to free him as he frantically splashed about.

The alarm was raised and rescuers from the Fountain Fire Department eventually reached the victim and pulled him out.

Luckily a crew, who had already alerted about children on the ice, were half way to the pond when the 911 call was made, Fountain Fire Chief Darrin Anstine revealed.

But they were too late to save him.

Taylor says he is now concentrating on finishing high school and making his father proud when he graduates.

John Green found the heroic dog — which his family affectionately calls Queen Sheba — last September at the Humane Society of Indianapolis. He decided to adopt her after discovering “she’d been passed over quite a few times.” She quickly became part of the family.

Then, right before Christmas, Green started experiencing chest pains while his elderly father slept in the other room.

Sensing that her owner needed help, Sheba licked the father’s hand until he woke up, allowing him to find his son and drive him to the hospital in the nick of time.

“I honestly think Sheba even knew something was happening and I think Sheba sensed that,” John Aleshire of the Indianapolis Humane Society told Fox 59. “Quite frankly, I think that John is probably here because of Sheba.”

Sheba isn’t the only adopted pet that’s helped save their owner.

In September, an 8-year-old American Eskimo dog helped save her owner’s life by alerting family members that the woman had fallen unconscious during a pregnancy-related seizure, Local News 8 Indiana reported.

Then in November, a 3-and-a-half-year-old boxer named Duncan sacrificed his life to save his owner from a fire.

Hopefully the Humane Society will recognize the dogs’ sacrifices by nominating them for their annual Dogs of Value award, which are given every year in March.

This is such an incredible story! A Great Dane saves it’s owner from an abusive husband and in return, makes a women’s domestic abuse shelter recognize the need to allow abused women to be able to bring their pets with them.

Kenn

Firefighters in New Westminster, British Columbia, rescued a three-legged dog that kept running back into a burning house in an apparent attempt to find its owner, who turned out not be home at the time.

The fire broke out at around 11:30 a.m. PT Friday in the laundry room in the basement of the two-and-a-half story 1930s era wood frame home on 7th Avenue, between 10th and 12th Streets.

New Westminster Fire and Rescue Services launched a massive response to the blaze, which was classed as three-alarm fire due to the proximity of other houses.

Neighbors said that even as thick smoke poured out, “Gypsy,” a three-legged dog, kept trying to get back inside.

The owner was not inside at the time.

By 12:15 p.m., the fire was out and the homeowner had returned.

The house was saved, but the basement and laundry room were gutted.

Neighbors said that the homeowner had been storing Christmas presents in the basement, but they were insured.

Another of the homeowner’s pets, a cat, was found dead inside. A second cat has gone missing.

The Florida Herald-Tribune reports that Barney, a Hungarian Viszla, was also hit in the crash that killed his owner, Donna Chen, of Sarasota. He fled the scene, and kept going — even after he hit the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

It was there a kayaker found Barney, about half a mile out to sea and suffering from scrapes, abrasions and trauma. “He’s in obvious distress,” the kayaker remarked upon finding the trembling dog.

Barney’s rescue was captured on videotape, as the kayaker had been filming his fishing expedition at the time. “Our guess is that he was so freaked out and traumatized that he just wanted to get as far away from there as possible. And when he ran out of land, he took to the water,” the kayaker wrote on YouTube. “I feel lucky that I was there fishing, because there was no place for him to go and I don’t know if he could have made it much farther. He’s banged up, but fine. Our hearts go out to the family who lost their mother.”

Watch the video of Barney’s rescue below:

Barney is now back home with Chen’s husband and three children.

Funeral arrangements for Chen, a registered nurse and homemaker, are pending.

The man who hit Chen, 22-year-old Blake Talman of Bradenton, Florida, is facing charges including DUI manslaughter.