Collie Hero

“A little 3 year old Brown county, Ill. girl is alive today because a collie named Blaze knew what to do in an emergency.

It happened on the Duane Hecox farm when both father and mother were busy with the chores. Each thought their daughter Laurel Dawn was with the other.

But Dawn, apparently wanting to see the “little piggies” and not realizing the danger, climbed a 4-foot gate into a lot where a sow and her newly-farrowed pigs were kept.

The sow’s anger was matched only by the fury of Blaze who came bounding to the attack the instant he heard Dawn’s screams.

But the sow wasn’t easy to drive off. Again and again, Blaze, transformed from a gentle collie to a furry ball of fury, tore viciously at the sow’s nose and finally drove her away.

Dawn’s injuries indicate that, had it not been for Blaze, the sow would have fatally mauled and bitten the little girl. As it was, Dawn’s shoulder was broken, cheek gashed, a tooth broken off, and she was cut so badly on the hip it required 30 stitches to close the wound.

Blaze’s rescue was all the more remarkable because he had never been able to jump fences or gates of any height. In spite of this handicap due to an injury received as a pup, Blaze did clear a gate close to 4 feet high when he heard Dawn’s terrorized screams.