Boxer inducted into dog hall of fame

CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis. — When Sharon Blake woke up in the middle of the night on Aug. 30, 2011, she nearly stepped on her roommate’s dog, Roxie.

“I thought ‘that’s odd’ because Roxie never sleeps in my room,” Blake said.

But Roxie abandoned her comfy living room cushion for Blake’s bedside for a reason that soon became apparent. When Blake entered the bathroom, she fell to the floor and had a seizure.

Roxie immediately ran to awaken her owner, Emily Quisling, who was able to help stabilize Blake as she convulsed.

And for her heroic actions that night, Roxie, a 7-year-old boxer, was inducted into the Wisconsin Veterinary Medical Association Pet Hall of Fame.

Blake and Quisling have been roommates for about 20 years, living in a house alongside Lake Wissota. The two were teachers in the Chippewa Falls School District until they both retired in 2003.

Two years ago, Blake was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and began chemotherapy. Looking back now, Roxie was likely aware of her illness as well.

“She had a habit of sniffing my legs,” Blake said. “She didn’t do that with other people.”

The treatments were hard on Blake, and it finally came to a critical point during the middle of the night last August. Blake only had a few moments to wonder why Roxie was sleeping in her room before she had a seizure.

Roxie immediately ran to Quisling’s room for help.

“She was snorting and leaping in the doorway to make her tags jingle,” Quisling said. “I thought `what on Earth is she doing?”’

She tried to call Roxie over to her bed, but Roxie would not leave the doorway. Quisling figured something was wrong, and followed Roxie to the bathroom.

“Sharon was on the ground just thrashing around,” Quisling said. “I had no idea what was happening. I’ve never seen anyone have a seizure.”

Quisling quickly bent down to stabilize Blake’s head; she said Blake was hitting it very hard against the tile floor.

“I had two black eyes and a bruised forehead (afterward),” Blake said.

Roxie stood silently in the bathroom doorway, waiting.

Finally, Blake stopped convulsing, but Quisling feared the worst.

“I thought she was dead,” Quisling said. “I kept saying `Sharon, Sharon.”’

But Blake caught her off guard by opening her eyes, and then asking: “What?”

It took Blake a moment to get her bearings and realize what happened.

“I’ve never had a seizure before,” she said.

Once Blake had tests done at the hospital, they figured out what caused her seizure. Her medications, along with chemotherapy, had brought her body’s magnesium levels to a dangerously low level. She received a transfusion that day and was prescribed magnesium supplements.

Blake stopped taking chemotherapy late last September but still takes the magnesium supplements. She has not had another seizure since that night.

Both Blake and Quisling were amazed by Roxie’s actions that night, and Quisling shared the story with her veterinarian at Roxie’s annual checkup last September.

“We thought it was just such an amazing thing,” said Dr. Kristy Langhoff of Chippewa Veterinary Clinic. “You hear about it every now and then, but to have it happen to someone locally and have that pet right here was pretty amazing.”

And when the state Veterinary Medical Association was looking for nominations for the 2012 Pet Hall of Fame, Langhoff submitted Roxie.

“(Langhoff) called us to ask if it was OK, and I said sure,” Quisling said. “I didn’t actually expect Roxie would get it.”

Roxie, along with two other dogs, were added to the Hall of Fame and honored at a luncheon March 3 in Wisconsin Dells.

She also got extra toys for her birthday on Feb. 28. Seven years ago, Quisling picked up Roxie from a breeder in Rice Lake.

“It was one of those `let’s go look’ trips, but when (Roxie) walked out, it was one of those heart-melting moments,” Quisling said. “It’s a good thing now that we did take Roxie home with us. Who knows how hurt Sharon would’ve been that night.”