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Written by: Elizabeth Larson

Published: 29 October 2008

 

LUCERNE – A big-hearted golden retriever who was adopted as a puppy from Lake County Animal Care and Control has been named among the first field of honorees for a new national honor for canine heroes.

Buster, who lives in Lucerne with his family, the Sorensons, received his Humane Society of the United States Dog of Valor medal on Wednesday in a small ceremony at the new animal shelter on Helbush near Lakeport.

Chris Sorenson, 47, adopted Buster as a 5-week-old puppy from the local animal shelter. In the 11 years they've been together, Buster has served as a service dog for Sorenson, who has no sight in his right eye due to glaucoma, besides suffering from numerous other health issues, including a heart condition.

Buster was honored Wednesday for action he took to save his master and family on the morning of Nov. 22, 2007 – Thanksgiving Day.

Sorenson was in bed that morning asleep, recovering from back surgery in which four discs in his back were replaced.

He was awakened by Buster jumping up and hitting him in the back with his paws.

“When I woke up there was a flame shooting a foot and a half out of the wall,” said Sorenson, explaining that a faulty electrical outlet had started to catch the house on fire.

He got up and evacuated his wife and three children, all of them meeting in the front yard of their Fifth Avenue home in Lucerne.

Sorenson, a former volunteer firefighter with Upper Lake, then took a fire extinguisher and a claw hammer and went in and made sure the fire was out. A foot and a half of wiring and a stud in the 1930s-era home were damaged, but no major harm was done.

“Basically, he saved the house,” Sorenson said of Buster.

After a few hours of repair, the family was able to sit down together for Thanksgiving dinner.

“We had a lot to be thankful for,” said Sorenson.

Paul Bruce, regional program director for the western regional office of the Humane Society of the United States, traveled from Sacramento to bestow the honor on Buster. He said Buster was nominated through a letter sent to the group.

This is the Dog of Valor award's inaugural year, said Bruce.

Seven dogs were honored, including three companion dog runners-up, three runners-up from the working group (including Buster) and one grand prize (see below for details on the other winners).

The grand prize was awarded posthumously to Buffy, a 7-year-old German shepherd from Oakland who was shot while trying to protect her master, Will Bartley, from an armed gunman who attempted to rob Bartley as he was returning home from work. Buffy later died from health complications exacerbated by her wounds.

Bruce said the Humane Society of the United States had offered a reward for her shooter, who has not been found. Later, the group decided to start the Dog of Valor award, and he put Buffy's case forward.

Buffy, Buster and the other winners were chosen by a panel of celebrity judges, among them tennis great Martina Navratilova; dog trainer Tamar Geller; animal activist Candy Spelling, widow of the late TV producer Aaron Spelling; and Silvio Horta, creator/executive producer of the TV show, “Ugly Betty.”

Bruce said he was on an animal evacuation mission for the Humboldt Fire in Butte County earlier this year when he got the call about Buffy and the other dogs being chosen for the award.

“I enjoy my job,” said Bruce, who got some kisses from Buster. “I get to meet a lot of nice dogs.”

Buster is with Chris Sorenson all day, every day. He walks on Sorenson's right side to prevent him from walking into objects which he can't see because he's lost sight in his right eye. Buster sleeps with Sorenson at night, gets him his medicine bag, and uses his calm presence to keep Sorenson's blood pressure down, as well as control the pressure in his eyes which are stricken with glaucoma.

Sorenson also has taught Buster some tricks – fetch, roll over and shake hands.

He said Buster enjoys playing with the children, and slept at the door of his young daughter's bedroom after she was born. When the children argue, however, he will stand between them, not liking to hear them fight.

For years Buster's best friend was the family's cat, Spotsy, who died recently. The dog used to carry the 22-pound Spotsy around from room to room, Sorenson said.

The Sorenson family – Chris and wife Ann; sons CJ, 18, and Luke, 9; and daughter Hally, 2 – are dog lovers. They also run Lucerne Bath and Brush pet grooming.

Chris Sorenson said he always urges people who want a pet to check out the shelter first – a good suggestion, since that's how Buster came into his life.

You can adopt a canine (or feline) hero and companion of your own by visiting the shelter at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, telephone 263-0278; or check them out online at www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm, where pictures of adoptable animals can be viewed.

Profiles in canine courage: Dog of Valor winners for 2007

The following dogs – some of which, like Buster, are service animals – are the other winners of the Humane Society of the United States' inaugural Dog of Valor award. The following profiles are taken from the Dog of Valor award pages, where the full profiles can be found, at www.hsus.org/forms/dogs_of_valor_winners.html.

Companion Dog Group

Buffy (Owners, Will and Lagree Bartley; Oakland, Calif.)

Buffy’s guardian, Will Bartley, had just returned home from work when he was approached by an armed man who pointed a gun at his chest and demanded money. Buffy, a 7-year-old German shepherd who had just made her way out to greet Bartley, sensed danger and lunged at the gunman, who fired two shots, striking her once in the front leg. Despite her wound, Buffy pursued the gunman who eventually escaped. A month after the shooting the Bartleys were forced to euthanize Buffy due to an underlying kidney condition that was exacerbated by the shooting.

Working Dog Group

Yeager (Owner, Sharon Yunker-Deatz; Louisville, Ky.)

Yeager, a 2½ year old Labrador retriever, is trained to help his owner, Sharon Yunker-Deatz, live with multiple sclerosis. Yunker-Deatz and Yeager took a trip to the beach in Muskegon, Mich., during which Yeager helped draw rescuers to a drowning child, swimming out to help despite a strong undertow. A month later, Yeager protected Yunker-Deatz from danger; while visiting a friend whose home had just burned down, she started to walk through the rubble but Yeager blocked her from moving forward. She discovered that a hole had been burned into the floor and, had it not been for Yeager, she may have fallen through the damaged floor.

People's Choice Valor Dog of the Year

Companion Dog Group

Jack (Owners, The Pieters Family; Willow Street, Penn.)

Jack is a terrier mix who a police officer rescued from a trash dumpster. In 2004, he was adopted from the animal shelter by the Pieters family whose daughter, Maya, had been diagnosed the previous year with Congenital Bilateral Perisylvian Syndrome, an extremely rare neurological condition that mainly affects the oral motor functions. Jack and Maya bonded immediately. On a fall morning in 2007, Jack awoke suddenly and rushed upstairs to Maya's room, where he began clawing and barking at the door. The girl was having her first grand mal seizure in her sleep; the family rushed her to the hospital. When she came home, Jack stayed at her side, and since then he seems able to sense when the little girl is about to have an epileptic event, event breaking her fall once and sitting on top of her as she suffered a seizure.

Dogs of Valor Finalists

Companion Dog Group

Anna (Owner, Candace Jennings; Idaho City, Idaho)

Early Thanksgiving morning, Anna, an adopted Australian cattle dog, barked and nudged her sleeping owner as flames quickly began to sweep through their Idaho City, Idaho mobile home. Finally waking her, Anna, two other dogs, and their guardian, Candace Jennings, were able to safely escape the burning home. As soon as they were outside, Jennings realized that all of her work keys were still inside. With Anna by her side, she crawled back in to find them but became disoriented by the thick smoke and could not find her way out. Anna came to Jennings' rescue again by pushing and nudging her towards the door that led to safety. Both escaped with minor burns just moments before the roof collapsed. The home was a total loss.

Bear (Owner, Jeremy Rogers; Palmer, Alaska)

Bear's two owners, Christopher E. Rogers Sr. and Elann Moren, were startled awake before dawn in a frightening way: Rogers Sr.'s 28-year-old son, Christopher Erin Rogers Jr., stood over them with a machete. Even as his son hit him multiple times with the deadly blade, Rogers Sr. tried to fight back. When he finally collapsed, Rogers Jr. turned his attention to Moren, his father's fiance, and began to attack her. That's when Bear, the couple's 160-pound Mastiff mix, attacked the assailant and bit him, giving Moren a chance to escape to the bathroom where she was able to lock herself inside and call the police. His attack thwarted, Rogers Jr. fled the Palmer, Alaska house and allegedly continued his 26-hour rampage in nearby Anchorage. Sadly, Rogers Sr. died from his injuries. While Morenn suffered a dozen devastating slashes to her head, neck, and back, she survived in part because Bear, who suffered a split lip and a shattered tooth, slowed the attack and gave her a chance to escape the nightmare.

Working Dog Group

Pearl (Owner, Adrian McKee; Big Bear City, Calif.)

Pearl is a service dog who is trained to help her owner, Adrian McKee, with her mobility. The 70-pound boxer-great dane mix also alerts McKee to oncoming migraines and has developed a skill for "tasting" (licking) McKee's skin and notifying her when her potassium levels are low or are dropping. One day in their Big Bear City, California home, McKee fainted and collapsed from potassium loss and was barely conscious. Pearl used her nose to try to raise McKee's head. She also licked McKee's neck and tried to get her up again. When that failed, Pearl went to the phone, knocked the receiver off the hook and stepped on one of the large emergency buttons her owner had casually shown her. When there was no response, an ambulance and police car were dispatched to the home. When they arrived, Pearl opened the door as she had been trained, grabbed a ball in her mouth and ran to the gate. Because Pearl's appearance had frightened paramedics and police in the past, McKee trained Pearl to carry a ball in her mouth in an effort to ensure visitors that she was friendly. Paramedics followed Pearl back into the home to McKee and took her to the emergency room where she was treated for dangerously low potassium levels. Thanks to Pearl's quick thinking, help for her guardian came just in the nick of time.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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Details

Written by: Lake County News Reports

Published: 29 October 2008

HIDDEN VALLEY LAKE – Lake County Sheriff's officials are looking for a suspect in an alleged home invasion and armed robbery that took place Tuesday.

Capt. James Bauman reported that sheriff’s deputies responded to a residence on Park Point Court in Hidden Valley Lake on Oct. 28 to investigate a reported home invasion and armed robbery.

Upon arrival the victims, Kevin Schosek and Wendy Ferrell, told deputies that they were eating dinner in their living room at about 7:30 p.m. when they heard their back door slam shut, Bauman said. When they turned to see who had entered the house, a man wearing all black with a black ski mask was standing in their living room pointing a semi-automatic pistol at them.

According to Bauman, the suspect told the two not to get up and demanded their money. Schosek threw his wallet to the suspect upon demand and then the suspect took Ferrell’s purse from a kitchen counter. The suspect told the two to “wait 60 seconds before they called 911 or he would kill them” and then retreated back through same door he had entered.

Once the suspect left the house, Schosek went to a balcony to see which way the suspect would flee while Ferrell called 911, Bauman said. Schosek did not see the suspect flee the area once he ran out of the house.

The two victims were unharmed, Bauman added.

Sheriff’s deputies conducted a search for the suspect with the assistance the California Highway Patrol and Hidden Valley Security but he could not be located, Bauman said.

The suspect is believed to be a white male as part of his skin could be seen through the cuts in the ski mask, according to Bauman. The only other description the victims could provide was that he was about 5 feet 9 inches tall and had a thin build.

Anyone with information relating to the home invasion and robbery is requested to call the Lake County Sheriff’s Department Investigations Branch at 262-4200.

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Details

Written by: Elizabeth Larson

Published: 28 October 2008

THIS STORY HAS BEEN UPDATED WITH ADDITIONAL INFORMATION.

COBB – Operators of the Bottle Rock Power Plant are due to sit down with area residents on Thursday evening and discuss concerns about the plant and its impact on the community.

The meeting will take place beginning at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 30, at the Little Red Schoolhouse on Cobb, 15780 Bottle Rock Road.

Supervisor Rob Brown said he organized a meeting to bring together the community and the power plant's representatives to discuss the plant and make an attempt to work out concerns and differences. Brown has received numerous complaints about the plant, prompting the meeting.

The plant, owned by US Renewables Group of Santa Monica and Carlyle/Riverstone Renewable Energy Infrastructure Fund I, reopened at the end of March 2007, as Lake County News has reported.

The plant originally had been built by the state Department of Water Resources to provide power for its operations.

The 55-megawatt plant, which can power as many as 55,000 homes, was closed in September of 1990 due to lack of steam. When it was reopened in 2007, plant officials said they had successfully reopened seven of the plant's original 10 steam-producing wells, and drilled two new ones.

Since the plant's reopening, neighbors in the area say they've experienced a number of impacts from the plant – including noise levels and handling of what they believe are hazardous materials – that is harming their quality of life and causing environmental concerns.

Larry Bandt, vice president of engineering for Oski Energy, which manages Bottle Rock Power's plant operations, said company representatives will be at the Thursday meeting to hear what the neighbors have to say and offer their own comments.

Bandt said the company has been talking about neighbors regarding their complaints, and have made and effort to work with them since the plant reopened last year.

One of the neighbors complaining about the plant is David Coleman. Coleman, whose great-grandfather settled the area and homesteaded the land where plant is located on Bottle Rock Road, splits his time between Cobb and the Bay Area.

He and other neighbors are particularly concerned about the plant's drill sumps – which collect water and chemicals – and how they're cleaned. Coleman said the operators have been taking the materials from the sumps and letting them dry in a nearby meadow. When he and a neighbor went to look at the situation they were told they were trespassing and informed they needed to make an appointment.

Coleman's concerns are echoed by another neighbor, Hamilton Hess, who owns property about a quarter-mile from the plant. “The most serious problem is the drilling pad and especially the sumps.”

He said the sumps are potentially a “huge cesspool of materials, many of which are toxic.”

While the plant's operators have claimed the sump materials have been tested and are benign, Hess said the neighbors remain skeptical, and have asked the county to require testing by authorized labs and make the information public.

They're also requesting the plant move to sumpless drilling, which uses tanks instead of ponds. “To move to sumpless drilling is state of the art,” Hess said.

Coleman also alleges the plant is responsible for stream alterations and violations of their use permit, and suggested the plant was approved under an outdated environmental document.

Hess added that there has been a great deal of grading and equipment work, which he said has been unpermitted.

However, he added, “We're not faulting them in terms of motivation,” saying that a new operations team has come on board since last November.

Coleman has taken his and fellow neighbors' concerns to the California Energy Commission, Department of Fish and Game, the Office of Emergency Services and the county's Community Development Department, along with approaching the Sierra Club Lake Group.

“It's just a huge, huge mess,” he said.

Coleman claims the plant has used dredged materials for top soil, and garbage and pallets are stacked everywhere.

Recently, however, he said the county and Fish and Game have the plant working on erosion control, and the plant is moving equipment and junk out of the area.

He said the biggest complaint he and his neighbors have concern the compromised sumps, and what is being done with the mud and materials pulled from them.

Coleman questions what might be in those materials. “I think everybody is nervous about that.”

Sound also is an issue. Coleman said at first the plant's operators encouraged the neighbors to call if they had problems. They did call, he said, but they only were only temporarily appeased and nothing was actually done.

“We found out a lot of things were slipping through the cracks,” he said.

He said at least 10 families in the area have expressed problems with the plant, while many more have just resigned themselves to accepting the problems.

Coleman said he's irritated by the difficulties he's had getting state and local agencies to talk to each other regarding the plant, or even to get plant personnel and Fish and Game communicating. “Why am I doing someone else's job without pay?”

He said he's like to see the power plant stop using the sumps. “I've seen the sumps overflowing on numerous occasions.”

Coleman said he is hopeful since the parent company recently sent out an executive to take a look at operations more closely.

“I'm just very dubious about who's going to fix it and how it's going to get done,” he said.

Hess said he believes things are getting better, and he is looking forward to the meeting, which he sees as an opportunity for the neighbors to get their issues resolved.

When asked about the issues the neighbors have with the plant, Brandt said he would wait until the Thursday meeting to respond to them.

For a full account of the plant's reopening, see Lake County News' February 2007 story,

http://lakeconews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=319&Itemid=764&mosmsg=Item+successfully+saved.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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