There are First Nations reserves dotted all over my small part of the world. Here's a small smoke house along this beach they use after making their catches.
This German Shepherd is more than just man’s best friend — he’s a hero who saved Steve Ujszaszy’s life.
Ujszaszy, a Crofton resident, was driving home on Jan. 2 in dark and snowy conditions when his truck hit a patch of black ice.
“The truck crossed the oncoming lane and slid down the steep embankment, 25 feet, where it came to rest atop a large tree stump,” said Sandy Lawrence, Gabriel’s owner, in a letter to the News Leader Pictorial.
“Steve didn’t know how much gas he had in the truck or how long he could keep it running and stay warm.”
So the 78-year-old man, who walks with a cane, attempted to climb the steep embankment.
“When he tried to climb up the bank, he slipped and fell backward to the truck,” said Lawrence. “He tried a second time, but this time he could not lift himself back up. He laid in the snow in the dark beside the back of his truck and called out, ‘Help me. Help me. Help me.’
“Steve laid in the snow for 40 minutes.”
Ujszaszy, who suffered a stroke four years ago and suffers limited mobility in his left leg, may have laid there even longer if not for Gabriel.
“Our house is the only house that is close to the road on that stretch and our German Shepherd started barking and barking in the house,” remembered Lawrence.
She and her husband Chris went outside to investigate.
“We went out on our side porch. We could faintly hear someone calling, but assumed it was one of our neighbours up in the back calling for the dog.”
But Gabriel knew better.
“Our German Shepherd started barking and getting very excited. He was standing up on the railings of the porch, something we have never seen him do.”
Chris and Sandy tried to take Gabriel back indoors, but he immediately wanted out again.
“When we let him out, he went down along the fence and started barking and barking. Once in awhile he would stop and then he would start up again. We called him but he wouldn’t come back to the house.”
Meanwhile, down the embankment, Ujszaszy knew he had to keep Gabriel’s attention. He used his cane to bang on the tailgate of his truck and continued to call for help.
“Every time he stopped banging and calling, the dog stopped barking,” said Sandy.
“He was so insistent,” she added of two-year-old Gabriel. “If you call him he’ll come, but he wouldn’t this time.”
Gabriel and Ujszaszy’s continued efforts drew Chris outdoors once again.
This time, he could hear the faint cries for help.
“Chris went out on the road and that’s when he could then see the truck’s lights,” said Sandy. “He went down the embankment and helped Steve back into his truck and had him put on the heater and the four-way flashers.”
Chris retrieved a blanket from the house and called 911 before returning to Ujszaszy.
Within minutes, police, paramedics and firefighters were on the scene and Ujszaszy, lifted up the embankment on an emergency sled, was taken to hospital, shocked and bruised, but otherwise unharmed.
The retired mill worker and electrician is quick to credit the Lawrence family for his rescue, and of course the heroic Gabriel.
“The dog saved me,” Ujszaszy said outside his Crofton home Tuesday. “Without him I would have frozen.”
Damn, I soooo love this breed.
