Puppy saved from house fire provides comfort to owner

Jerry Satterwhite lost almost everything in the fire that ripped through his Rocky Mount home two weeks ago.

The blaze started in the garage – the result of a wiring short – and moved quickly through the house on Burton Street. Nobody was home.

It pains Satterwhite, 44, to think about his dog, Little Bit, and her puppies suffocating in the smoke and intense heat of that afternoon fire. It’s an image he’d rather not conjure. Little Bit and two of her puppies were killed that day.

“That is sort of why it means everything for me to have this dog,” Satterwhite said of the lone puppy to survive the blaze. “I lost almost everything in that fire as far as possessions. And those dogs were the most important things I lost. Having this dog and knowing he’s going to be OK is a comfort.”

Renamed Lucky Blue after escaping the fire alive, the puppy – a dachshund-chihuahua-basset hound mix – bounds around as mischievously as any 6-week-old pup. He’s full of energy, Satterwhite said, and he’s overwhelmingly affectionate.

“You would never guess he was in a fire,” Satterwhite said.

And you would never guess that just a couple weeks ago, fire crews used special equipment to resuscitate his lifeless body.

After firefighters removed the puppy from the house, they wet it down to cool its body temperature and hooked it up to a pet oxygen mask donated to the fire department by a local group, Friends of Rocky Mount Animals. The puppy responded well to the resuscitation efforts, officials said.

“When he was first brought out, he was virtually lifeless – showing only a small amount of movement,” Rocky Mount Fire Battalion Chief Keith McGee said. “And then within about 10 minutes, he began to move around a great deal – trying to wriggle away, out of the oxygen mask – and he began to whine and try to bark.”

The puppy received additional treatment at Riverside Veterinary Hospital. Veterinarians there say the dog will make a full recovery.

Satterwhite occasionally tears up when he thinks about his longtime friend, Little Bit, and the two puppies that didn’t survive.

Satterwhite, a father of three girls, said the dog was like one of his children.

“Everyone loved her,” he said. “It’s tough.”

But watching Lucky Blue – named for his surprising capacity to survive and for his striking blue eyes – makes the Rocky Mount native thankful for what he does have, he said.

When he starts to feel down, Satterwhite just looks at that puppy.

“It’s absolutely amazing,” said Satterwhite, who is staying with a friend until he can find an apartment. “I’m so thankful they were able to save him. This puppy has helped me not to dwell on the bad stuff I guess you could say. He’s kind of like the silver lining in all this.”