by Kyle Wintersteen - Monday, July 2, 2012
Patricia Drauch entered her garage assuming that, as always, her 14-month old son, Stanley, was close behind.
"He always follows me into the garage, he likes to play on the lawn mower," she explained.
But on this occasion, Stanley had quietly wandered off, and the result was nearly deadly. When Drauch realized Stanley was not by her side, she rushed around the house, terrified, searching for her son. To her horror, she spotted Stanley floating face up in the pool—Bear, the family's black Lab, was swimming with the boy on his back, apparently in an effort to keep the boy afloat and allow him to breath.
"We all believe that if it wasn’t for Bear, he would have sunk down," Drauch said, adding that without Bear she may never have spotted Stanley in the pool. "It was incredible to see Bear holding him up like that."
But despite Bear's efforts, Stanley was unresponsive. Drauch carried him to her car and hurried down the road to a nearby fire department for help. Along the way, Stanley regained consciousness. He's expected to make a full recovery.
Drauch says Bear has kept an especially close eye on her children following the incident. However, perhaps he was just following orders when he committed his heroic act.
"I’ve always told him that these are his babies and he has to watch over them," Drauch said.
Well done, Bear.
