Animal Blessings and a Heroic Dog

Posted by Clare Bristow

As World Animal Week comes to an end I thought I'd post a video of an inter-faith animal blessing service that took place at Long Beach California last week.

The video is by Justin Rudd, and it shows a variety of animals that were blessed, including his bulldogs Riley and Rosie (running time 1m 54s).

One dog who probably got more hugs and bones than many others during World Animal Week is Toby, a two-year-old Golden Retriever.

Toby has been named as the ASPCA's 2007 Dog of the Year after performing the canine version of the Heimlich maneuver on his owner.

Toby's owner, Debbie Parkhurst, was enjoying eating an apple snack until she realized a piece of apple was lodged in her throat. Debbie started choking and beating her chest in a vain effort to dislodge the fruit.

Alarmed by her distress, Toby pushed Debbie to the ground and jumped up and down on her chest until the offending apple came up.

Debbie is convinced she owes her life to Toby, whom she rescued from a grim fate in a dumpster in 2005.

Toby will be honored at the the ASPCAâ€™s annual ASPCA Humane Awards Luncheon, on Thursday, November 1, at New York Cityâ€™s historic Rainbow Room in Rockefeller Center.

â€œThe Humane Awards Luncheon is our way of recognizing the important role animals play in our lives, the significance of the human-animal bond, and the people who make animal welfare a central part of their lives,â€ said ASPCA President & CEO Ed Sayres.

What a great story.

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