With North Buck Creek running higher than normal on her property, Marion Morrison wanted to see if anything could be done to clear the tumbleweeds choking the steep banks of the small creek. She grabbed some tools and headed out the door with Rocky, her spunky corgi, and Mojo, her fluffy corgi/pomeranian. Morrison didn’t know that she’d soon find herself holding Mojo’s lifeless body in her arms.

‘The best dog’

Although Rocky favors Morrison’s husband, David Livingston, Mojo is always at her side. Morrison adopted him 11 years ago at the Park County Animal Shelter.

“That dog had me wrapped around his paw in about three seconds,” she recalled. “And he has been the best dog.”

Mojo’s smile is all it takes to warm your heart and his unthinkably thick coat makes him a bit comical — like a round, fuzzy black cloud floating an inch or two off the ground on white stubby legs.

You could probably knit sweaters from the massive amounts of hair Rocky and Mojo shed after a belly rub, but David and Marion don’t care. Their pups are very much loved and both get more than their fair share of attention. “When I take him to the vet, they think he’s overweight or something,” she said. “I look at them and I say, you know, that’s 90% hair. When you give him a bath, he looks like a different dog.”

Even long after they’re gone, their hair will probably survive in the crevices at the farm. “It’s just another condiment in this house,” Morrison joked.

Nobody really wants to think of the day their pets are gone. Mojo is aging: his sight and hearing are diminished; his age is uncertain; he could be anywhere from 13 to 16 years old, yet he still has a lot of life in him. But Morrison nearly lost Mojo in the creek, near Heart Mountain, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

Saving Mojo

While surveying the tumbleweeds, she heard a splash. She thought the rambunctious Rocky went for a drink. But when she turned, Rocky was on shore and Mojo was missing. It took a while before she caught a glimpse of black fur in the creek. Mojo was nose down in the water and he wasn’t moving.

“I was like, Oh my God, that’s Mojo,” Morrison recalled.

Without a second thought she jumped in the creek and grabbed him. The water was cold and much deeper than she had anticipated. She worked her way out of the water with Mojo in her arms, laying him on shore. He was unresponsive.

Morrison knew there was no time to take him to a veterinarian and there was no one else around. But she had some previous cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training on humans, so she improvised. She did five compressions and then two breaths over and over.

Morrison wasn’t panicking. The recently retired executive director of Friends of a Legend (FOAL), is farm strong and battle tested. She continued the chest compressions and mouth-to-nose intervals until Mojo began to slowly open his eyes.

“I just kept rubbing him and rubbing him until he was back in the land of the living,” she recalled.

The dog was weak and Morrison was starting to feel cold as her adrenaline waned. They needed to get dry and warm so they rushed back to the house. As she used a towel to dry his thick fur, Mojo started to bark.

“He was sitting there barking in my face,” Morrison said. “I was just so happy that he was barking at me because he was gone moments before.”

What could have been a tragedy turned into a scary, but joyous moment. After the excitement was over, however, Morrison’s inquisitive nature kicked in. Were her attempts to revive Mojo correct?

What to do

Morrison jumped on the computer and watched a few YouTube videos. While she saved Mojo, she might have been lucky. She was doing five chest compressions, then two breaths for Mojo. The correct way to do it is 30 compressions, then two breaths, she said.

“The Stayin’ Alive rhythm works on both people and dogs,” she said, referring to the 1979 hit by the Bee Gees.

Dr. Lyle Bischoff, at Powell Veterinary Services, said proper CPR on a dog is less vigorous than on a human. A dog’s rib cage is more flexible than a human and it doesn’t take much force to move it, he said. Bischoff also pointed out that the dog should be on its right side with its head lower than the rest of the body to assist in removing water from lungs. While you do mouth to nose, you must first close the dog’s mouth, he added.

Bischoff said there are other considerations people should take before attempting a rescue: “One concern is they may do damage to themselves while trying to rescue their pet.”

Yet the veterinarian knows it’s much easier to say than do. People often put their lives in jeopardy to save their pets. In 2016, a 26-year-woman drowned in the Heart Mountain Canal after apparently entering the water in an attempt to save her dog. More recently, in October, a 20-year-old woman suffered severe burns and spent about three weeks in a medically induced coma after trying to save her dog from the 200-degree Maiden’s Grave Spring in Yellowstone National Park.

Bischoff said it’s hard to advise against rescue efforts because many pet owners consider them to be “their children.” In sharing her story, Morrison simply wants pet owners to be prepared.

“It’s better to know what to do before it happens,” she said.

Morrison also knows from a lifetime of sharing her life with dogs that losing a beloved pet is one of the sharpest pains in life. And until that day comes — hopefully a long time away — Mojo and Rocky will be enjoying frequent tummy rubs.