It's a dog-save-person world out there

CASWELL LAKES — Anne Skinner loves her dog, Teddy Bear. And so does a complete stranger, since Teddy Bear saved her life.

Skinner was driving to her remote Caswell Lakes home last weekend when she noticed her dog, Teddy Bear, at her driveway.

She knew he wasn't acting normal, and that got her interested in what Teddy Bear was trying to "say" to her.

"I knew something was different than normal, but I didn't know what," Skinner said. "Then I saw something move way down the road in the snow bank. I didn't see exactly what it was, though."

She proceeded down the driveway and honked her horn once she got to her house.

Her husband, Jim, came out and got in the car, and they went to see what the movement was.

"It was a very intoxicated woman who was lying in the snow bank," Skinner said.

"If Teddy Bear wouldn't have noticed and started acting differently, she would have frozen to death there," Skinner added.

The Skinners, who are retired, immediately used their cell phone to call 911. But their choice of retirement areas — a remote locale in Alaska — posed a little bit of a problem when talking to the authorities.

"We live in such a remote area, we weren't sure they would find us. So we told them we would load her up and meet them at the Caswell Lakes Road," Skinner said.

The Skinners worked to get the woman in the vehicle, and then they turned her over to the EMS personnel who met them.

"We live five miles off the road, and six miles from Sheep Creek Lodge," Skinner said. "She would have definitely froze to death if Teddy Bear didn't see her and let us know. She lived 11 miles from where she was laying in the snow. She is so lucky Teddy Bear is so observant."

Skinner said Teddy Bear is actually a misnomer. "He looks more like he should be a ‘Polar Bear' instead of a Teddy Bear," Skinner said.

Teddy Bear is a golden retriever/wolf mix, Skinner said.