The air is tense as a nurse steadily performs CPR on a patient in need. Another nurse stands nearby, ready to trade off and continue compressions if the first nurse gets too tired. Hovering behind them, two more medical professionals are ready to assist in anything from keeping time, to shoving an oxygen tube down the patient’s throat. But these first responders are not saving the life of any ordinary individual, but rather, man’s favorite four-legged friend. That is, they would be if the dog was alive.
‘So I’ve got a video here about just, we’re using a stuffed animal. We don’t want this to be a traumatic class,” Dr. Toccoa Wolf says. Wolf is a veterinarian and owner of Sitka Animal Hospital. She is showing a room full of amused firefighters from across Alaska a video demonstrating how to perform CPR on pets and to recognize whether an animal is struggling to breathe and needs it. The recipient is a cuddly, life-sized stuffed retriever with brown curly fur.
