Positivity: Dog Saves 82 Year-Old Woman’s Life

From Silverton, Oregon, as told by the woman saved:

Woman retells the story of how her dog saved her life
Now Silverton woman searches for a new home for her dog

April 25

SILVERTON - When 82-year-old Virginia Ball stepped outside of her Silverton home on the evening of April 5, she was hoping her dog Katie would make a quick trip to the bathroom. She never expected it to become a long ordeal that caused her to fear for her life.

“I was getting along just fine and the next thing I knew I fell flat on my face and I couldn’t get up,” Virginia said. “There I was on the ground and I couldn’t raise my little hand. I didn’t know if anybody could see me or hear me.”

Ball had gotten Katie as a companion in early December from Marion County Dog Control and Shelter.

Outside, the warm air was beginning to cool as the clouds began to slowly work their way in from the coast.

Virginia was several hundred feet from the road and houses were far apart. She didn’t know if city workers would come to the city shops behind her the next day and if they did, if they would even see her.

As the hours ticked slowly by, Katie, still on her leash bounced across her, occasionally nuzzling Virginia’s cheek or resting on her master’s body.

“We laid awake all night and I kept Katie as warm as I could,” she said. “She walked on me and pretended I was a rug and a mattress and shivered and wondered what I was doing out there all this time.”

She said it wasn’t raining and the night air had been warm so she hadn’t worn much clothing and she too shivered in the cold.

Virginia said she remained awake, even attempting to crawl toward her concrete back porch but to no avail.

The next morning, when it was still dark and quiet, she said a prayer and let Katie off her leash.

“I figured I had better let her off her leash because I wasn’t sure what was going to happen,” Virginia said. “I told her to go on. She ran toward the road and came back a minute and then disappeared. I just laid down and I’m a Christian person so I prayed to the Lord.”

Virginia said she doesn’t know how long she lay there, only that she watched the sun rise. She hoped Katie, who was fond of chasing deer, hadn’t run into the road. She said she remembers it being very quiet that morning.

Then, out of the shadows of the trees lining her dirt driveway, she saw Katie again, and this time she brought a familiar face.

“I heard someone say, ‘Virginia. Virginia are you all right? Are you hurt,” she said. “And there came Katie bringing them along. At least that’s the way it looked to me.”

Julie Hannon from Silver Creek Animal Clinic, next to Virginia’s home, said Katie was at the clinic doors when the Austin McIntyre arrived. She said Katie was running around and barking, but that McIntyre didn’t recognize the dog and placed her in a kennel. Once she arrived, Hannon said she recognized Katie.

“She had never been loose at the clinic before,” she said. “I thought that was kind of strange so we took her back over there. We found (Virginia) in the path on the grass, and I thought, Oh my God, Virginia.”

She said Virginia was able to tell them she had fallen so Hannon sent McIntyre to call for help. She said Virginia never mentioned her all-night experience.

Hannon went into the home and got some blankets and called Virginia’s daughter and waited with Virginia for help to arrive.

“It wasn’t until the ambulance arrived that she said, ‘By the way, I’ve been out all night,’” she said.

Virginia was rushed to Silverton Hospital and then transferred to Salem Hospital where she spent more than a week recovering from multiple surgeries to her hip and knee. She is now in the Benedictine Nursing Center in Mount Angel where she said she will likely remain.

This means Katie can no longer live with Virginia and is now looking for a new family to love. Ball said she is sad to have to give up her rescuer and friend.

“She’s just so cute with her little black nose and her sparkling eyes,” she said. “She’s got a lot of personality. She thinks that chasing the deer in the field is why she was born. I’m going to miss her terribly.”