HACKENSACK, Minn. — A dog named Kona is being credited for rescuing the owner who rescued the retriever mix from a shelter.
“He saved my life,” Punch Swenson says from the kitchen of his Hackensack home.
Under his shirt, Swenson is nursing four cracked ribs and a broken collarbone, the result of an ATV crash that left Swenson – the 84-year-old driver - dazed along a dead-end gravel road.
He doesn’t remember the crash.
But Punch’s neighbor Jim Wussow won’t likely forget Kona showing up in his yard as he mowed his lawn.
“Just happened to catch my attention, his dog was standing in the driveway,” Wussow says.
Wussow grabbed a leash and headed with Kona back toward the Swenson place.
“I don't go down there for weeks that way,” Wussow says. “He tugged on the leash as we headed back home.”
The pair had gone about a block when Wussow saw Punch Swenson bleeding from the face and in obvious pain.
Swenson was taken to the hospital by ambulance where he stayed for a couple days.
Now Kona is getting extra love from Swenson and his wife Nancy.
“I think Kona was getting help,” Nancy Swenson says. “He went to Jim.”
Kona was just returning the favor.
Three months earlier, the Swensons rescued Kona from a shelter after seeing his picture in the paper.
“I said look at that dog, I'm going to go in and get him,” Nancy Swenson says.
It should be noted, that Punch Swenson was on the ATV because Kona had run off. But the Swensons say Kona more than made up for his bad behavior.
“He's my hero,” Punch Swenson says.