'God is watching; he's watching all the time'
Pastor Dale Morgan
'God is watching; he's watching all the time'*
Elderly couple's dog rescues them from snowstorm disaster
--Fox News
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
By Liza Porteus
NEW YORK — When Eve and Norman Fertig rescued a sick, two-week-old half
wolf, half German shepherd puppy from a breeder almost seven years ago,
they'd never dreamed that the animal one day would save their lives.
"God is watching; he's watching all the time," Eve Fertig told FOXNews
from her home at the Enchanted Forest Wildlife Sanctuary in Alden, N.Y.
He apparently was watching on Oct. 12, when the 81-year-old Fertigs were
treating injured animals in the forest sanctuary on their property. One
such animal is a near-18-year-old raven, while another is a crow who was
shot, blind in one eye with two broken legs.
It was routine for the couple to feed and exercise the dozen or so
animals there around 7 p.m. every night.
"While we're in there, the lights go out and I realized something's
wrong," Eve Fertig said. "We go outside to see what's happening and down
comes one massive tree … the trees came down across us."
The massive storm that hit upstate New York that night felled trees,
blocking the Fertig's path to the other sanctuary buildings — such as
the school and storage building — and to their home, which was at least
200 feet away.
"We were in big trouble. … I said to my husband, 'I think we could die
out here,'" Eve said.
'The Most Heroic Thing I've Ever Seen'
The Fertigs huddled in a narrow alley between the hospital building and
the aviary, where they were sheltered from falling trees. They couldn't
climb over the trees without injuring themselves. Neither had warm
clothes on since it was a clear, crisp fall day just a few hours ago.
They hugged each other for warmth, since by 9:30 p.m., temperatures had
dropped.
"I wasn't prepared for this … I thought, 'we're trapped, we're
absolutely trapped,'" Eve said. "That's when Shana began to dig beneath
the fallen trees."
The 160-pound dog that habitually follows her owners around — Eve likens
it to "Mary had a little lamb," when the lamb went everywhere Mary went
— eventually found the Fertigs and began digging a path in the snow with
her teeth and claws underneath the fallen trees, similar to a mineshaft,
and barking as if to tell them to follow.
A reluctant Norm said, "I had enough in Okinawa in a foxhole," referring
to his service in World War II.
"'Norman, if you do not follow me, I will get a divorce,'" Eve said to
her husband of 62 years. "That did it. He said, 'a divorce? That would
scandal our family.' I said, 'all of our family is dead, Norman!'"
After Shana tunneled all the way to the house — a process that took
until about 11:30 p.m. — she came back, grabbed the sleeve of Eve's
jacket, and threw the 86-pound woman over her back and neck, which Eve
described as "as wide as our kitchen shelf."
Norman grabbed Eve's legs, and the dog pulled them through the tunnel,
under the trees and through an opening in a fence to the house, at which
they arrived around 2 a.m.
"It was the most heroic thing I've ever seen in my life," Eve said. "We
opened the door and we just fell in and she laid on top of us and just
stayed there and kept us alive … that's where we laid until the fireman
found us."
There was no electricity and no heat in the house, so Shana acted as a
living, breathing generator for the exhausted Fertigs until the local
fire department arrived the next morning.
Concerned neighbors — many of whom had children Eve taught — who
couldn't get hold of the elderly couple via telephone throughout the
night had called the Town Line Fire Department.
But when the fire department urged the Fertigs to go to the firehouse to
take shelter along with 100 others, they told them they would have to
leave Shana behind.
"We said, 'we don't go anywhere without her.' ... I said, 'we'll stay
until the people are gone and we'll take Shana,'" Eve said.
So the couple stayed at home with Shana until Sunday, when the firehouse
emptied out. During the three days in a house with no power, heat or hot
water, Shana slept with her owners to keep them warm.
"She kept us alive. She really did," Eve said.
Also during that time, firefighters not only helped clear trees from
their grounds, but they brought food and water for both human and animal.
"They kept looking at that tunnel and said, 'we've never seen anything
like it,'" she said. "I can't thank them enough — they're heroes."
When they went to the firehouse Sunday, Shana followed the Fertigs
everywhere, even to the bathroom. And she was 'spoiled rotten' by the
fire crews there, Eve said.
She said the fire chiefs said her story of being saved by her pet
rejuvenated exhausted fire teams. "The story, they said, just gave them
new hope."
A Lesson Learned
Last Thursday, Shana received the Citizens for Humane Animal Treatment's
Hero's Award for bravery — an award traditionally given to humans. The
plaque, complete with Shana's picture on it, hangs in the Fertigs'
living room, along with other pictures of wolves the couple has worked with.
Eve, who teaches courses in Saving Endangered Species and Caring for
Injured and Orphaned Wildlife at community colleges and trains animal
rehabilitators in New York, said she hopes her story will help further
her message of humanity toward animals and educate people about how even
a wolf, if treated with care and dignity, can be a "kisser and a hugger"
like Shana.
"If you're vicious to a human being, they'll become fighters," Eve said,
but even wolves, "once you treat them right and raise them in your
house, they're magnificent."
Eve has taught 400 adults to be wildlife rehabilitators. She and her
husband are volunteers who pay for their own teaching licenses and
caring for the sanctuary animals, out of their Social Security checks
every year.
"I've never been on a cruise and I don't shop and I haven't seen a movie
in two years," Eve said.
The only time the Fertigs go to the movies is, of course, when they are
submitting to a higher calling.
"What I do to get signatures for my petitions, I go to [a] movie that's
showing a wolf, horse or whale story," and she and her husband camp out
outside the theater and get petitions signed to help save various
animals, which they send along to wildlife organizations.
"I have a motto ... joint abilities don't create hostilities," Eve said.
"I make it my business to talk to all groups, all conservationists, all
hunting clubs, to let them know what they're missing out there."