Kerri Cooper knew something definitely wasn’t right when her 3-year-old Retriever Labrador mix started barking insanely out the window of their Rock Creek apartment Friday afternoon.
Cooper, 23, darted to the second-story window and saw a 2 1/2-year-old boy walking toward ducks in a pond at the apartment complex. She yelled at him to stop, but he only turned his head and kept on walking.
When no adult stepped into view, Cooper leaped into action.
“By the time I got down the stairs and around the corner, he was already in the water,” Cooper recalled, during an interview Saturday. “The water was already up to his neck.”
Cooper, who was fully clothed, jumped into the frigid, murky water and plucked the screaming boy to safety. Because the boy couldn’t tell her where he lived, it’d be a full 20 minutes before she and management at the Rock Creek 185 apartments were able to locate the adult responsible.
His 58-year-old grandmother, Rochelle Huegli, had started searching for the boy in the common areas of the complex.
The Washington County Sheriff’s Office says Huegli had been babysitting the boy, but also had been drinking alcohol and fallen into a deep sleep when the toddler slipped out of the door of her apartment. Huegli was arrested under accusations of first-degree criminal mistreatment and second-degree child neglect.
The boy was returned to his parents.
Cooper and the boy were still drenched when he was reunited with his grandmother. Cooper said the boy wouldn’t let go of her until he saw his grandma, at whom he waved and cheerfully smiled.
“We told her he was in the water, and she was just like ‘Oh my gosh. I can’t believe it. I’m so sorry,’” Cooper said.
Huegli then gave Cooper a hug, and explained that she thought the boy was napping with her, Cooper said. Cooper said Huegli told her the boy had gotten out of her apartment in the past.
Cooper is a food server at Raul’s Mexican Restaurant in the Raleigh Hills area. She was home at the time of the 1:30 p.m. incident because she works the night shift
As for Lucy, her dog, Cooper says she has always known she is a sensitive, intelligent dog. Cooper let her know just that, with some hugs and words of commendation.
“I told her how good she was and all that,” Cooper said.
~ Courtesy of Oregon Live
Tags: boy nearly drowns, boy saved by barking dog, dog alerts, dog alerts trouble, dog hero, dog saves boy
