Patricia Checchin sees herself as a person who does the right thing -- but hardly a hero.
Still, in the eyes of one North Port pet owner, Checchin is a savior after rescuing her 14-year-old Yorkshire terrier, Chelsee, on May 13.
Shellee Guinta cannot seem to find enough words to thank Checchin after she scooped her 4-pound pooch's lifeless body out of a swimming pool.
Checchin had been watching the dog at her Port Charlotte house while Guinta was away on a long weekend trip up north. Checchin had left Chelsee playing on the lanai near the pool for a moment while she went to get something from another room.
Checchin, 62, came back moments later to find the dog lying sideways in the pool with her tongue hanging out of her mouth.
"It was horrible," Checchin said. "Everything happened so fast."
What happened next was one, as they say, for the books.
Checchin, who cannot swim, dove into her pool -- clothes and all. She grabbed Chelsee and jumped out of the pool.
"There was no life," she said. "She was like a wet dishrag."
Checchin, who said she didn't have any time to panic, called her husband at work. He quickly walked her through the procedures of performing CPR.
She said she blew into the dog's snout and soon after noticed signs of life. Checchin said that Chelsee blinked her eyes and vomited but was otherwise OK.
Checchin took the dog to a veterinarian. The tiny canine was given a good bill of health, according to Checchin.
This is not the first mouth-to-snout resuscitation in Charlotte County. Last February, off-duty Charlotte County Sheriff's Deputy Casey Roberts saved another Yorkie named Oso by performing the CPR procedure. The dog was not breathing after being in a wreck.
The pet sitter was more than relieved that her four-legged charge was alive and well.
"I am just glad she's fine and acts like nothing ever happened to her," she said. "I said my prayers that day."
And Checchin's not the only one who's happy.
Guinta who considers Chelsee to be like a daughter, cannot praise her friend enough.
"I am forever in debt to this woman," Guinta said.
Guinta's voice cracked as she spoke of her beloved pet -- a scrappy little dog who survived last year's hurricanes.
But Checchin softly shrugs off the accolades.
"I don't think of myself as a hero," she said. "I just did what I had to do."
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