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A lick of the face and a nudge of the hand from Danny, a miniature schnauzer, helped Bethe Bennett regain consciousness after she fell in her Glendale, Ariz., home.

Bennett fell on her tile floor Friday and broke her femur. She lay on the ground in excruciating pain, aware that no visitors were coming until Tuesday.

“I was scared. I really thought I was going to die,” Bennett told ABCNews.com. “I knew I was going into shock because I’m a nurse.”

But Danny, a trained service dog who used to care for Bennett’s now-deceased mother, lent a helping paw that helped save his devoted owner’s life.

“I started asking Danny to get me the phone,” Bennett said. “He ran back and forth a couple of times barking and finally jumped up and knocked the phone over and pushed it with his nose toward me.”

But then Bennett realized the paramedics may not have been able to get into her locked house.

“Paper!” she asked Danny. He brought over five sheets, one of which had the phone numbers of Bennett’s neighbors.

Bennett called her neighbors, who unlocked her home with a hidden spare key just as paramedics arrived.

She is now recovering at Banner Thunderbird Medical Center in Glendale, with Danny by her side.

Bennett has written a book called the “Forever Home” series about the foster animals she takes in and said she plans to write one about Danny.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be the one he’d have to rescue,” she said. “He was my little hero.” Neat video at http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/02/01/service-dogs-licks-save-
owners-life/

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