Disabled Air Force Veteran Saves His Drowned Dog with Mouth-To-Snout CPR

If a dog is man's best friend, a disabled U.S. Air Force veteran showed the feeling is mutual by saving his drowning pet with mouth-to-snout resuscitation and CPR.

Lucy, a 10-month-old English bulldog, chased ducks into a partly frozen lake near Randy Gurchin's home in Papillion, Nebraska, but quickly became paralyzed in the icy water and briefly went under.

The 50-pound (23-kg) dog was unresponsive and had a blue face and bloody foam around its muzzle when Gurchin, who flew combat missions over Iraq and Afghanistan, edged onto the ice.

"The ice started to crack under me. I just picked her up," he said. "I thought she was dead."

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Our little Lucy is back," said Gurchin's wife Kelley.

Her husband, who retired from the military with a back injury in 2005 and walks with a cane, has vowed not to let the dog out of his sight, she said.

"He would never say he loved her until this rescue mission," she said.