DOG SAVES TOSSER IN KITCHEN

A Cheetingham woman has praised her pet dog for saving her life after falling batter blocked her passages.

Beverley Arnquist, 37, of Tudor Vale, was alone in her kitchen when the freak accident occurred.

“I was making pancakes,” said Beverley, “to have them ready for my husband when he came home from work. I already had a sizeable number made and was in the middle of a particularly good toss when everything went black and I don’t remember any more.

“The next thing I knew, I was in hospital.”

By sheer fluke, the pancake Mrs Arnquist had tossed came down upon her head. The moist batter flopped over her face, blocking both her nose and mouth. She fell unconscious, and that might well have been the end of things, had it not been for her pet dachshund Patches.

Alerted by the sound of his mistress’ falling body, Patches came trotting in from the garden. Realising immediately that something was amiss, he started eating the batter from around Mrs Arnquist’s nose. He then stood on her chest to check that she was breathing.

However, on receiving no reaction to a resuscitating fart delivered directly into her nostrils, Patches knew that he had not a moment to lose.

He rushed into the hallway and clambered up onto the telephone seat. Knocking the receiver onto the floor with his nose, he then hit the speed dial button with one front paw.

The machine dialled Mr Arnquist at his office. Upon hearing his master’s voice at the other end, Patches barked frantically into the mouthpiece.

“I knew something was very wrong by the nature of his barking,” said Brian Arnquist, “so I immediately jumped into the car and drove home.

“It’s lucky that I did. By the time I got home, Beverley was turning blue.”

Mrs Arnquist was taken to Froghill General, where she was kept in overnight for observation.

Now back home and convalescing nicely, Mrs Arnquist knows that Patches is the reason she is still here. When asked how she would thank him, she replied: “I’m not sure, what can you do in a situation like this?"

Then she added: “but I do know that he’s very fond of pancakes, so I might just go into the kitchen and see what I can toss up.”