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Loyal pooch saves trapped owner

Herbert Schutz (76) probably owes his life to his faithful dog - Australian Kelpie Boydy. He thought he was facing certain death as he was trapped and seriously injured beneath the wreckage of his car. However the dogs’ companionship during the cold nights kept him warm.

The Daily Mail reported that the pooch even refused to leave his master’s side when rescuers finally located them four days later.

Schutz became trapped after his four-wheel-drive vehicle crashed into a tree on his property.

STAYED BY HIS SIDE

He managed to climb out but as he did so the car rolled over, pinning him under the chassis. He suffered a fractured skull, two broken hips and a dislocated shoulder. Neighbours set out to look for him after his worried daughter told them she had not been able to contact her father.

One neighbour, Eric Merritt, and his friend Julian Barrett discovered the upturned vehicle at the foot of the mountain.

Merritt said: “We saw the car and that no one was in it. Then his dog ran around the front of the car and then we heard him call for the dog. That’s when we found him.”

Merritt said Schutz had Boydy’s hair all over him, a sign that the dog had provided some body warmth to help his owner combat the low night-time temperatures.

He said" “Even when we found him, the dog ran straight to his side and cuddled up to him. He didn’t want to leave him even then.”

Schutz told his rescuers that several of his horses had approached during his ordeal and some of his internal injuries may have occurred as they accidentally trampled him while walking around the wreckage. Guess they won’t be getting special treats like Boydy will then.

His daughter released a statement saying it was “amazing” that her dad, who had no food or water with him, had survived this ordeal, according to the Daily Mail.

She said she wanted to express her “deepest gratitude to neighbours for responding so quickly to her requests to check on his wellbeing after she could not get in contact with him”.

Although doctors described his condition as still being “serious”, his daughter added: “He is in very good care and is conscious and lucid at the moment, which  is amazing given what he has  been through.”

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