| In the wooded foothills of the northern Sierra, | | | | Crenshaw had fallen into a gulley with probably a |
| Bustopher Jones, a big black and white cat | | | | broken hip. He covered her with his jacket, called |
| sometimes points oddly, like a bird dog. During his | | | | 911 and tried telephoning her family, not at |
| daytime ranging over the hills, Bustopher visits | | | | home. |
| Mrs. Crenshaw, an 84-year-old woman who lives | | | | The paramedic team arrived within 15 minutes, |
| on her son's ranch across the creek. One | | | | followed by an ambulance and the |
| November morning the cat shadowed his | | | | Dobbins-Oregon House Volunteer Fire truck. Greg |
| owner, David Giles, doing yard work on his | | | | Royat of DOH heard the call on CB and came |
| property to the west. Giles thought he heard a | | | | to offer assistance. Giles flagged down the |
| strange sound once that morning, but found | | | | vehicles as they came up the hill, and, having |
| nothing. Then he noticed Bustopher, frozen into | | | | emergency medical skills, assisted in splinting the |
| point position with his front paw curled under, tail | | | | hip so Mrs. Crenshaw could be lifted out. |
| straight up, fluffed and quivering. Giles went to the | | | | That evening, Mrs. Crenshaw's son returned from |
| edge of his lawn above the road to investigate | | | | work to find Giles' message on his answering |
| and heard the sound again, very faint. It sounded | | | | machine, and further news from a sister-in-law |
| like, "Help me, help me." | | | | who had called the hospital. The mother's hip was |
| The canyon below Giles is mostly hidden in trees, | | | | indeed broken and she was already being fitted |
| with a house in the distance, beyond ponds and a | | | | with a prosthesis. |
| swimming pool. Giles immediately hiked down with | | | | "She must have been out trying to do something |
| his dog, Ernie, to investigate and found Mrs. | | | | she shouldn't again," said her son. |