Dog Community

I suspect a hero's welcome at the Bridge

Posted : 2/3/2007 4:46:32 PM

I can't confirm this and if/when I do I will post it. Most of you have seen the news coverage about all the tornado damage here in Central Florida.

One dog has been found an reunited with it's owner that I know of:. More than one story has surfaced of animals who woke their owner/guardians in time for the humans to find safety (including a 4 month old chow mix who alerted it's people to the danger and they rode out the storm in the bathroom). But following is the one that just tears my heart:

Dog Trixie saves lives (from an article "Dawn of Devastation" from the Orlando Sentinel)

A mixed-breed poodle named Trixie saved Nellie Byrd's life.

The tornado, moving at 65 mph, had just ripped through The Villages at Lady Lake at 3:19 a.m. and was minutes from tearing apart Byrd's double-wide mobile home in Lake Mack.

Byrd was in her bed, asleep, like many of those who died Friday morning. Asleep until Trixie bounded onto the bed.

"She was jumping up and licking us and trying to get us awake," said Byrd, 75.

Byrd got up, turned on the radio and heard weather forecasters say a tornado was headed for Paisley on the eastern edge of Lake County.
She awakened her husband, Edd, and her sister Marylou Lawing, visiting from New Jersey, just before the winds arrived. The house began to shake. Things became airborne inside the house.

Byrd, her husband and sister huddled on the floor in the hallway, surrounding themselves with pillows. She shielded Trixie with a pillow from the items flying and falling all around them.

Then the mobile home started coming apart. The wind lifted her sister from the floor. It ripped up part of the floor like the top of a cereal box. Byrd grabbed one of the support beams through the hole in the floor. The wind lifted her off the floor three times.

And then the storm took away Trixie. The dog disappeared into the wind and the rain and the darkness.

"The wind took her. She got blowed out," Byrd said.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Folks this storm was TRAVELLING 60 mles an hour. That means those winds travelling in excess of 150 mph in a circle were also being propelled across land 60 mph forward speed. I can't even begin to calculate the force of those winds mentally. I hope so much that dog simply tripped over the Bridge fast and easy. And on the other side, the Rainbow Bridge Welcoming Committee KNEW they were greeting a heroine. A little heroine who saved her people.

I know Billy was disraught the other night and woke ME up and the storm was miles away. But oh my, I hope the welcome for this dog was wonderful. My heart breaks for these people knowing how bereft they must feel that she was their savior yet likely lost her life.

jessies_mom

Posted : 2/3/2007 6:58:49 PM

Bless her little heart; she certainly is a hero. Run Free Sweet Trixie [sm=angel.gif]

Raja19

Posted : 2/3/2007 8:27:30 PM

That is so sad, poor Trixie did not deserve that

Run free Trixie

bragg1120

Posted : 2/3/2007 10:24:35 PM

Bless her little heart!! This is why I can't comprehend anyone ever mistreating animals... Trixie loved her people, woke them up and ultimately saved their lives only to lose her own. I'm sure her welcome at The Bridge was huge! That just breaks my heart.

calliecritturs

Posted : 2/3/2007 11:44:18 PM

Tornados actually scare me. Hurricanes don't scare me at all -- but tornados do. Not that I'm paralyzed by them, but when the last ones happened like 8-9 years ago a couple were caught in their truck. They drove it into a small gully and held each other -- it sucked him out of the truck and left her IN it. Trixie, darlin - you did good!!

calliecritturs

Posted : 2/4/2007 2:14:15 PM

Trixie has been found!!! RAH!!!! Phew Rainbow Bridge will have to wait a while for her!!! (I hope a LONG while)

Dog lost in tornado finds owner
Posted on Feb 2, 2007 5:47:16 PM
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[/link] Seventy-five-year-old Nellie Byrd is reunited with her dog, Trixie, in front of what is left of her doublewide home in the Lake Mack area of Lake County where a tornado struck early Friday. The dog was missing for a while after the storms hit. At least 19 people have died as a result of the tornadoes that cut across Central Florida before dawn.