Good dog!

[Debbie Parkhurst, 45] said she was home alone with the dogs Friday afternoon when she decided to snack on an apple. Suddenly, she said, a chunk of the fruit became wedged in her windpipe. "It was lodged pretty tight because I couldn’t breathe," she said. "I tried to do the thing where you lean over a chair and give yourself the Heimlich, but it didn’t work."

Parkhurst said she then began beating her chest, an action that might have attracted [2-year-old golden retriever] Toby’s attention. "The next thing I know, Toby’s up on his hind feet and he’s got his front paws on my shoulders," she recalled. "He pushed me to the ground, and once I was on my back, he began jumping up and down on my chest."

Toby’s jumping apparently managed to dislodge the apple from Parkhurst’s windpipe.

…"I, literally, have pawprint-shaped bruises on my chest," Parkhurst said. "I’m still a little hoarse, but otherwise, I’m OK. … I know it sounds a little weird, but I think he had a sense of what was happening. Of all the dogs in the world, I never would have expected this goofy one here to know the Heimlich."

The only thing that could possibly make this story even better? Debbie and her husband Kevin rescued Toby from a dumpster.

[H/T to Bint.]