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PET SMARTS: Toby the golden retriever did a "Heimlich" to save owner Debbie Parkhurst.

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Winnie the shorthair roused Michael Keesling and family as furnace fumes filled their home.


November 2, 2007 -- He gave her the paws of life.

Toby didn't hesitate when Debbie Parkhurst choked on a piece of apple and couldn't breathe - the golden retriever did a doggy version of the Heimlich manuever.

PHOTO GALLERY: Hero Pets
"Because of him I'm here," Parkhurst, 46, said yesterday at a Rainbow Room ceremony where the ASPCA named her 4-year-old pooch Dog of the Year. "He's my angel in fur."

Parkhurst was sitting on a couch in her suburban Maryland home snacking on an apple when a piece of peel went down her throat.

"It was sheer panic. I started to beat on my chest, but that didn't work," she said. "Toby knocked me down and I thought, 'Toby, this isn't a good time to play.' "

Toby jumped up and down "on my chest, twice," she said, and the piece of apple was dislodged.

Toby was one of two animals - and five people - the ASPCA honored for heroism.

Winnie, a 14-year-old domestic shorthair, of Newcastle, Ind., was named ASPCA Cat of the Year for waking her owner, Cathy Keesling, in March as carbon-monoxide fumes filled the family's home while Cathy, her husband and 14-year-old son were sleeping.

FDNY Firefighter William H. Smith III was honored for rescuing a cat and dog from a Bronx apartment fire at 196th Street on June 24.

Rachel Distefano, 12, of Southampton, L.I., was given a trophy as ASPCA Kid of the Year for working with her mother to found Amaryllis Farm Equine Rescue in 2005, which has saved 51 ponies and horses from slaughter.

"I want to speak for the animals who cannot speak for themselves," Rachel said as she accepted her trophy.

Tony LaRussa, now manager of baseball's St. Louis Cardinals, was honored for his continuing work in helping save animals. He co-founded the Animal Rescue Foundation in 1991 after he rescued a stray cat that came onto the field during a Yankees game when he was managing the Oakland Athletics.

rita.delfiner@nypost.com

http://www.nypost.com/seven/1102200...sure_978870.htm

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