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Teenaged Tim Hortons employees help rescue service dog

Teenaged Tim Hortons employees help rescue service dog

Thanks to two fast-acting teenagers, Monty the service dog is back on the job.

His owner, Sue Anderson, shared the story with CTV Ottawa.

"There's so many stories you hear about bad choices teenagers make," Anderson said, "that you don't hear of good choices they're making and this was one of the good choices."

For the past six years, Monty has been at Anderson's side, anticipating the Ottawa woman's seizures.

This weekend, Monty was the one who needed help.

On Saturday evening, Monty suddenly collapsed.

When Anderson, who is wheelchair-bound, quickly realized she wasn't going to be able to book a Para Transpo ride to the emergency veterinary hospital in time — no accessible taxis were immediately available either — she bundled up the dog and started wheeling him in the direction of the hospital.

After more than two kilometres, she stopped at a Tim Hortons, concerned about her dog's hypothermia risk.

Fortunately for Anderson, two compassion teenagers, Audrey Duvnjak and Emma Norris, were on the evening shift.

"Immediately I thought what if this happened to Spencer, my dog," 18-year-old Norris told CTV News, "and I was like, 'Okay, this woman needs help. I need to help her. We need to get this dog to the animal hospital before something bad happens to it.'"

Duvnjak, who had a car, offered to drive Monty to the Alta Vista Animal Hospital while Norris tended to Anderson.

"And when I drove him, I have heated seats, this dog is freezing," Duvnjak recalled, "I'm putting my seat heater on, and he did not want to be alone. He doesn't even know me, he crawled up into my lap into little ball, super scared."

Thanks to the teens' quick thinking, Monty is back in service, having since woken up Anderson when he detected an irregular heartbeat in his human companion.

He is now on medication for a disc disease.