Life-saving puppy raises alarm after owner's fall

Chloe was just 11 weeks old when she pressed an alarm on a pendant to help her owner Catherine Anderson

A woman whose dog raised the alarm after she fell and was knocked unconscious at home has received a letter from Queen Camilla praising her life-saving pup.

Catherine Anderson, 71, from Ruabon, Wrexham, lives alone and normally wears a pendant alarm to alert carers to any issues.

She was getting up from sleeping on her living room sofa with 11-week-old Jack Russell Chloe to answer a call when she fell and hit her head on the wall.

Despite leaving her pendant in the bedroom, she woke to paramedics around her and Chloe fussing at her feet after pressing the red button.

Hearing barking on the phone along with Ms Anderson's alarm activated, staff at Delta Wellbeing dispatched NHS paramedics after they failed to reach anyone at the address.

Ms Anderson, who woke to a suspected skull fracture, said both her and the paramedics were left wondering "how on earth" they were alerted.

"The alarm was in the bedroom, I was in the living (room), it was just me and an 11-week-old puppy," she said.

"I'm still baffled and scratching my head until this day," she added.

Doctors told Ms Anderson they would not know how long she would have been lying there or "how bad it would have got" without Chloe.

Emotional support dogs usually require training, Ms Anderson said, but as she only had Chloe for two days, she was yet to start.

Ms Anderson said the whole right side of her skull was black with bruising, and doctors wanted her to stay in hospital overnight.

But despite her own health, she remained worried about Chloe, who is registered as a support puppy, but was yet to receive her certificate.

"All I could think about was her, to make sure she's OK. But I saw a lovely doctor, who said you can't go home just yet," she said.

Ms Anderson spent a night in the hospital but was keen to get home to her doting pup, who she describes as her "shadow".

A keen royalist, Ms Anderson said she could not help but buy the Queen a gold and white brooch shaped as a Jack Russell for her 78th birthday, as well as buying one for herself.

Enclosed in the gift, was a letter explaining Chloe's heroic act, along with a series of photos.

Ms Anderson said she was happy knowing the Queen had received the present, and did not expect a response.

But just last week she received a letter which she said was "like a letter to a friend".

In it, the Queen thanked Ms Anderson for the brooch and called Chloe a "little star" and she was very lucky to have her, adding she adored her two Jack Russells, Moley and Bluebell.

"It's something I will treasure forever," said Ms Anderson.

She said in the "time she had left" she would love nothing more than to meet the Queen and her beloved canines, along with Chloe.

Ms Anderson admitted she had been hesitant to get another dog after recently dealing with the death of her Yorkshire terrier, Maddison, at just six years old.

But she described it being "love at first night" going to collect Chloe, and thanked her for her quick thinking, despite only having her first vaccination the day prior to the fall.

With Chloe now nearing eight months in age, Ms Anderson described her as "like a carer".