July 1, 2005

Humane Society honors two from Willow Glen

The Humane Society of Silicon Valley (HSSV) and the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors last month honored four Valley Medical Center workers for their “dogged determination” to reunite a lost dog with its owner after the two were involved in a car accident and became separated. Two of them live in Willow Glen.

Reunited again. Pooch the dog visits his owner Ed Karnaszewski in the hospital. The two were separated after an accident, but four women made sure the two were reunited.

The four received county medals at a ceremony at the shelter on June 8. The two from Willow Glen, Betty Berry and Hultan Tang, were joined by fellow honorees Connie Pugh and Jennifer Wilkes.

The story
On Jan. 31, 2005, Eugene Karnaszewski, a retired schoolteacher from New Jersey, was involved in a car accident on Highway 1 and was airlifted to VMC for treatment. During the airlift, Karnaszewski was more worried about the fate of his best friend, Pooch. Pooch had been in the vehicle when it crashed and her whereabouts were unknown.

Pugh, a nursing supervisor at VMC, knew that finding Pooch would be the best “medicine” to help Karnaszewski make a full recovery. She spearheaded an effort to locate Pooch and enlisted the help of Tang, a medical social worker and Wilkes, a registered nurse. But after several days of searching and making phone calls, Pooch had not been found.
The women refused to give up and their dogged perseverance paid off when Pooch was located at the Monterey Animal Shelter.

On Feb.9, Pugh and Berry, who also is a registered nurse, went to Salinas to pick up Pooch. Pooch was scared and reluctant to come out of the kennel, but she was finally coaxed out. Berry paid the $89 fee and cared for Pooch until Karnaszewski was released from the hospital.

Once he learned that Pooch was alive and well, Karnaszewski’s spirits and interest in recovery immediately improved. Just having Pooch back in his life meant a great deal. He now had a reason to recuperate and work on going home.

“The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors wants to recognize these extraordinary women who went above and beyond the call of duty to find Pooch and provide Mr. Karnaszewski with the ‘medicine’ he needed to make a successful recovery,” said County Supervisor Pete McHugh.

Last year, Humane Society Silicon Valley housed more than 18,600 stray animals. Only 2,308 were reunited with their owners.

“The Humane Society applauds these women for their dogged determination to find Pooch and reunite her with Mr. Karnaszewski,” said HSSV President Christine Benninger.

Benninger wasn’t surprised Karnaszewski’s health improved once he was reunited with Pooch. “The human-animal bond is very powerful. An animal’s unconditional love can heal us and brighten our entire outlook on the world. That’s what makes pets such wonderful companions,” Benninger said.

HSSV is an independent, nonprofit agency offering quality adoptions, medical care and education programs to enhance the human-animal bond. Established in 1929, HSSV has grown into one of the largest animal shelters on the West Coast, caring for nearly 24,000 animals last year. To date, HSSV has adopted more than 500,000 animals into permanent, loving homes. In fiscal 2003-2004 alone, HSSV found loving homes for 7,451 animals, spayed/neutered 6,191 dogs, cats and rabbits and vaccinated 11,947 pets. The agency has an “open-door” shelter policy and accepts animals 24 hours a day, seven days a week, regardless of any temperament or health-related problems. HSSV’s medical center offers affordable spaying/neutering vaccinations and microchips to the public.

Information from this article also comes from Randi Ely, a nurse manager at TICU/SICU who wrote a story on Pooch that first appeared in the March/April 2005 edition of Valley Nurse.