2 Georgia canines earn shot at Dogs of Valor Award

Two Georgia dogs — Hank, the sweet-faced beagle, and Charley, the stylish West Highland terrier — are among the real-life Lassies and Rin Tin Tins nominated for a special award to celebrate canine heroism.

Fifteen dogs are in the running for the Dogs of Valor Award, created by the Humane Society of the United States to “honor and celebrate dogs who have performed an extraordinary act of courage by heroically helping a person in need.”

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Charley helped his Loganville owner find a man who had fallen off a ladder in between two houses. An emergency call saved the man’s life.

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Hank roused his Dublin, Ga., owner who had been crushed by a tractor, and helped him back to the house, where his family called the hospital.

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The dogs are listed on the Society’s Web site, where visitors can vote on the most deserving Fido through 5 p.m. Friday. The site also lists the valorous acts that earned each dog a place in the roster.

There’s Baby W., of Charleston, W.Va., who woke her owner as the house began burning down; D-Boy of Oklahoma City, who chased off an armed intruder, braving three bullet wounds; and Jake, the Labrador who leaped into an Omaha river to fish out a struggling 12-year-old boy.

Charley, at 15 pounds, is on the small side compared to some of these giants, but has plenty of heart to spare. He pestered Loganville owner Frances Gippert to take him outside one afternoon last August, then tugged on his leash to lead her to a man who had fallen from a ladder. Roy Monie, 61, was lying semi-conscious between two houses, where he had been working on the roof at one of his rental properties.

Gippert quickly summoned emergency technicians and Monie survived. The EMTs told her “if we hadn’t gotten to him when we did, he wouldn’t be here,” she said.

P.W. Wesley, 81, a farmer who lives near Dublin, Ga., was working one morning last October, when his tractor rolled over him, breaking four ribs, cracking his sternum and knocking him unconscious. Hank licked him to wake him up and helped back to the house.

“When we knew what Hank had done, it just sent chills,” said Wesley’s daughter, Sheyrl Stanley. “I said ‘Dad, you are a miracle. That could have been the last time we ever saw you.’”