Beyond the Call of Duty: Deputy takes in dogs after owner is rushed to hospital
Ottawa County Sheriff’s Deputy Ben Norris cared for a traveling Pennsylvania couple's dogs when a medical emergency required them to go to the hospital.
The call came 10 minutes before the end of his shift: An older male with chest pains was stuck at a rest stop.
Ottawa County Sheriff’s Deputy Ben Norris hurried over to the Zeeland Rest Area and, upon arrival, assessed the situation together with Zeeland Township Fire Department personnel.
According to Norris, Pennsylvania couple Dave and Bonnie Duritsa had been traveling home when Dave suddenly experienced a heart attack. He needed urgent transport to the hospital, but there was one problem: the couple had their two Dachshunds, Charlie and Heidi, with them.
“It was a super hot day,” Norris said.
He told Bonnie, “You need to be with Dave — that’s where you belong — but I’m not going to let you leave the dogs out in the heat to die. If you trust me you can leave the dogs with me.”
Moments later, Norris called his wife and said: “Hey, we’re coming home with a couple of dogs. She said, ‘Let’s go.’”
“The situation was pretty nonchalant for her,” Norris said. “She has dealt with so much already as a result of my job.”
Both Norris and his wife are dog lovers, and adore their own dog, Captain, whom they’ve had for 13 years.
“Captain has been with us through everything,” Norris said
Typically, families are contacted to take in pets during emergencies. When officers can’t reach any relatives, animals are sometimes brought to a humane society as a last resort, Norris said.
But, wanting to ease Dave and Bonnie’s minds, Norris didn’t hesitate to welcome the dogs into his own home. For the next week, the Norris family grew from six to eight.
Norris said, overall, it was a community effort.
“It was not all me and my family. Zeeland Township Fire Department and American Medical Response helped save Dave's life. Even after that, members of Zeeland Fire reached out to me and stopped by my house to check in on the dogs and if there were any updates on Dave. There are many cases in different areas where a call of the same nature does not get this much cooperation across multiple entities.”
He believes the incident highlights why Zeeland and the first responders there help make it such a great place to live.
“Zeeland Township Fire Department's motto on their rigs reads: ‘Our Family Caring For Your Family,’” he said. “I do not know how to show that to be any more true.”
Overall, meeting the Duritsas has affirmed why Norris, who has been a law enforcement officer for seven years, does his job.
“This incident allowed me to show my boys how we treat people in their times of need, even if we do not know them. If they absorb that and pass it on as they get older, then what more could a person ask for.”
The Duritsas have since been reunited with their dogs.
