- PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Nancy Nayowith lives with a wolf tattooed on her leg
and a menagerie -- seven cats, three dogs -- at home. If her pets are in
distress, she is unabashedly loyal: "I'd do anything." Even mouth-to-snout?
"Definitely. They're worth it."
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- Nayowith, a teacher at Philadelphia's
Overbrook High School, is prepared. The American Red Cross, best known
for delivering blood and emergency services to people, has begun helping
pets -- with pet first-aid courses for owners.
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- "People want to learn how to care
for their pets better," says Mona Bennett, a Red Cross instructor
who helped develop the course for the Philadelphia area chapter and has
three dogs herself. "You can't just call 911 for them."
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- In a recent class, Nayowith practiced
cardiopulmonary resuscitation on a dog mannequin designed by a Hollywood
prop maker. Outfitted with a sack that acts like lungs, the dog seemed
to spring to life, "breathing" when participants apply CPR.
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- The southeastern Pennsylvania chapter
of the Red Cross in Philadelphia is one of the first to offer the class.
So far, 65 of 1,350 chapters nationwide do so.
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- The class is rooted in the Red Cross
tradition of helping people, and in a book published last year.
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- Volunteers first noted that pet owners
often are as concerned for their pets as for themselves when disaster strikes.They
also saw the family's deep concern when a pet is ill or injured.
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- "We found that when people's homes
were burned or were destroyed by a tornado, they'd refuse to go to shelters
without their pets," Bennett says. "They would sleep out in the
cold with their pets rather than leave them behind."
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- The class itself evolved over several
years, starting when the Humane Society of the United States approached
the American Red Cross: Official to official, shall we produce a book?
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- After Mosby Yearbook Inc. published "Pet
First Aid," several Red Cross chapters -- including Philadelphia,
Los Angeles, Boston and Franklin, Tenn. -- decided to offer hands-on experience,
along with reading material. "We really felt if ... people could practice
their skills, they'd learn more," Bennett says.
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- Besides the book, courses include a training
manual and a first-aid kit with the usual antibiotic ointment, bandages,
scissors-- plus a blue plastic pooper-scooper. For about $65 per family,
the course also covers tactics for emergencies and for preventive care
in such circumstances as a heat wave or cold spell.
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- The Philadelphia chapter currently offers
one class a month averaging three hours and 16 students. They plan more
classes if the demand grows.
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- In July, Delaware Valley Medical Center
in Langhorne just north of Philadelphia added the program as part of community
health education. Thirty people turned out to learn emergency techniques
such as CPR and trauma care, says Caroline Williams, a health educator
at the center.
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- "When people see the mannequin lying
there like an unconscious animal, they see that their own pets could really
be endangered," says Williams. But, after class, "everyone walked
away with the confidence that they could take care of their pet if there
was a crisis."
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- Veterinarians say first-aid classes could
save the life of any animal, even one as small as a hamster.
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- "People don't expect anything will
go wrong with a family member, let alone the four-legged one," says
Mary Beth Leininger, a Michigan veterinarian and past president of the
American Veterinary Medical Association in Chicago. "I try to tell
my clients being prepared for an emergency with a pet and a child is basically
the same, except pets tend not to demonstrate their pain, which means knowing
what to look for is vital."
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- Celle Hickey, a geriatric worker who
is training to be a CPR instructor for people, recently received instruction
in life-saving for pets at the Philadelphia Red Cross chapter. But she
had to rely on her wits a few months ago.
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- A nurse once told her how she had performed
CPR on her aging dog. Hickey recalled it when her family pet, a shepherd-lab
mix puppy, twisted his chain collar so tight he passed out.
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- "My family said leave him be, he
was dead," Hickey recalls. "But I remembered the instructions,
got down and started blowing through his nose. Then I felt him start breathing
again."
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- Now the dog, Jean Claude, is an active
2-year-old.
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- "It really does work," Hickey
said between resuscitative puffs, this time just for practice.
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