Country View: Hurricane dog

Dog found them

Listen to this radio show (MP3 download) or read below.

Radio interview source: Denise Guinn, acreage owner, Ft. Ogden, Florida

In August of 2004, Hurricane Charley made landfall in Charlotte County, Florida. The Guinn family acreage was right in its path and was damaged.

Denise Guinn had been listening to her oldest son beg for a dog on a regular basis, but it just wasn't a good time to bring a pet into their lives. However, one day, as the family left the house for church, they noticed a dog curled up under a tree in their front yard. Denise's son said, "Look! There's my puppy!" The dog was thin, so Denise went to the kitchen to find her something to eat.

"The only thing I could think of was I had a bag of hot dogs," Guinn says. "So I threw a hot dog out and she came running, and she made a beeline for the front door. It was all I could do to get in the door and slam it in her face because I was afraid she was going to bite me! So I fed her the hot dog and she wouldn't leave the front porch so I kept feeding her. Well, 13 hot dogs later, the dog is still on my front porch!"

Denise says the dog had a very royal presence about her, so when she called out the name "Sheba", the dog responded as though it was her name since birth.