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Guide dog gets his share of aid
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Tempe resident Larry Colbert, who is blind, talks about the unexplained gash his guide dog Banner, a 7-yearold yellow Labrador, received before taking a flight Friday.
Leigh Shelle Robertus, Tribune
Friday the 13th should have been fairly straightforward for Larry Colbert.
The 62-year-old blind Tempe resident was on his way to Nevada for a speaking engagement, but as he stepped inside Terminal 4 at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, something went wrong. Colbert realized his guide dog, Banner, was limping.
It took an airport official to explain the sticky fluid he had just felt on his leg. Colbert’s guide dog was standing in a pool of blood.
Luckily for the golden-yellow Labrador and his blind owner, help came in droves.
Banner is back home with only a red bandage and a neighbor’s “get well” balloon and flowers serving as a reminder of his escape from serious injury and possible death.
Dean Zattair, an airport operations assistant at the Phoenix Aviation Department, was one of the first people to help the injured 7-year-old dog.
“Oh man, when I saw the dog, there was a big gap on his front left leg and blood was oozing out,” he recalled.
Colbert said the injury, which left a five-inch gash and severed several arteries, must have taken place in the cab on the way to the airport.
“As we were about to reach the airport, I heard Banner yelp. The driver asked what’s wrong, and I said I don’t know,” Colbert said.
Inside the terminal, Troy Anderson, a Southwest Airlines customer service agent, took over. He put pressure on the wound to stem the bleeding.
Colbert’s girlfriend, Mesa resident Sandy De Neui, rushed to the airport to take Banner to a nearby veterinarian hospital.
Anderson finally let go of the 72-pound dog at the operating table.
Two hours later, with Banner in good hands, Colbert came back to the airport to fly out to Nevada. Banner was released that same night.
Colbert and De Neui said if it weren’t for Zattair and the Southwest employees, the dog wouldn’t have made it alive.
“They could just as well have said they have work, but they made room to make a difference,” De Neui said.
Colbert agreed. “Friday the 13th turned out to be my lucky day after all,” he said.
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