--- title: Santa Monica Firefighter Brings Dog Back to Life With CPR description: A lifeless dog that was pulled out of an apartment fire in California was brought back to life after a firefighter performed mouth-to-mouth. canonical: https://time.com/4712367/santa-monica-firefighter-dog-cpr/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-24T15:22:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:02:52.750Z og:title: A Firefighter Brought a Dog Back to Life With CPR og:description: "Faith in humanity restored" og:url: https://time.com/4712367/santa-monica-firefighter-dog-cpr/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte1dde9d85cb8bbd7/6988bfc10a4a22aa459cd676/firefighter-dog1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4032 og:image:height: 2268 og:image:alt: firefighter-dog og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A Firefighter Brought a Dog Back to Life With CPR twitter:description: "Faith in humanity restored" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte1dde9d85cb8bbd7/6988bfc10a4a22aa459cd676/firefighter-dog1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'Faith in Humanity Restored.' 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ## Video: How Dogs Help Veterans Cope With Post-Traumatic Stress [Watch (HLS stream): How Dogs Help Veterans Cope With Post-Traumatic Stress](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/8gW0ZGsw.m3u8) (5:11)  _Published 2010-11-11. Struggling with post-traumatic stress, veteran David Sharpe says he found a dog at a shelter that saved his life. Now, with a group called P2V, he pairs other vets with rescued pets._  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Mar 24, 2017 3:22 PM UTC  A Santa Monica firefighter resuscitated a dog after performing CPR on it following an apartment fire. A Santa Monica firefighter resuscitated a dog after performing CPR on it following an apartment fire. Photo courtesy Billy Fernando / via Santa Monica Fire Department  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Mar 24, 2017 3:22 PM UTC A lifeless dog that was pulled out of an apartment fire in California was [brought back to life](http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/article140395078.html) after a firefighter performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on it earlier this week. Santa Monica firefighter Andrew Klein’s life-saving efforts were captured in photographs and videos Tuesday and have been getting attention from across the country. The small dog, named Nalu, was not breathing and didn’t have a pulse when firefighters pulled him out of his blazing apartment, the Santa Monica Fire Department said in [statement](https://santamonicafire.org/Content.aspx?id=53687097438). The animal was “overcome by heat and smoke,” fire officials said. Klein performed CPR on the dog and gave him oxygen through an oxygen mask designed for pets, the department said. Video footage shows Klein and other first responders lightly petting him and coaxing him to wake up until the animal begins to stir. Nalu began breathing on his own and regained consciousness about 20 minutes after being receiving CPR, fire officials said. “It was pretty amazing because I’ve been on a number of animal rescues like this that did not come out the same way that Nalu’s story did,” Klein told [KTLA 5](http://ktla.com/2017/03/23/santa-monica-firefighters-resuscitate-small-dog-that-was-unconscious-for-20-minutes-after-apartment-fire/). “It was definitely a win for the whole team and the department that we got him back.” Billy Fernando, the photographer who snapped images of the resuscitation, [shared the photos on Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/billy.fernando/posts/10212477800966643) and praised the firefighter for bringing the dog “back to life.” “Faith in humanity restored,” Fernando wrote. ## Transcript >> Cheyenne is my savior. She is the love of my life. She has always been there for me through thick and thin. Oh, I woke you up. Oh, now, you're up. Uh- huh. My name is David Sharpe, and I served for six years in the United States Air Force, Security Forces. It all started right after 9 / 11 when we got forward deployed again to Uzbekistan, and a couple of our buddies didn't make it back. And so, I went-- I came back home finally in March of 2002 and I pretty much segregated myself from my family and friends. My friends-- We would go out, they would say, " Hey, Dave, do you want a beer ?" I'm like, " No, I'm good. I'm gonna cruise around this bar and when I look at-- the first guy who looks at me longer than two seconds, I'm gonna pop him ." They said, " We can't hang out with you anymore, Dave. You're out of control ." I was like, " Fine, I don't need you any ways ." So, my friend came over, and he said, " Let's check out this Pit Bull Rescue ." I said, " Oh, yeah. I want a-- I'm a fighter. I want a fighting dog ." I go down there, and there's this one puppy that's not paying me any mind, but all the others are all around me. And then I remember, she came over to me and she, like, licked my hand, sniffed it, and left. And then she came-- just laid back down in the dirt in the opposite side of that pen, and I said, " I'm gonna get her ." Cheyenne, you remember that? Come here. Come here. Come here. Come here. You bum! You're a bum. You are a bum. She's a baby. This is a baby! Big baby. This is her. I brought her home, and about a couple weeks later, she witnessed me punching the holes in the walls and beating up the refrigerator door, and this was normal for me during this time. I see this little tail, out of the corner of my eye, and I look down at her, and she's looking at me, you know, doing this back to-- waving her head back and-- back and forth, and I looked down at her, and I just picked her up and took her back to my bed and just started crying and talking about everything that happened, what I experienced, what I'm going through. And it felt like a 10, 000- pound weight was lifted off my chest. It literally did. >> When I first got back from my deployment, I remember we were sitting in a coffee shop, and I just felt like everything was closing in on me, and I just wheeled myself out of the coffee shop as soon as possible, and I just sat back and waited for it to blow up. I was having flashbacks. These were crazy. I'm like cut down little-- I ended up picking up Zapper from the P2V foundation. There are certain things that, you know, I only talk to Zapper about. Not that I don't think my family understands or wanna hear. Come here. Come here. It's just that, you know, you always have that thing, " Will they judge me over this or not ?" -[ unk ] over there? >> Yeah. A little bit. >> You know, you just really don't want to tell your story to somebody. You got these doctors who've not-- you know, they've heard it, they haven't seen it, you know. So, you just talk to your dog, man. Talking to Zapper, he just lets me get it off my chest and get it out there. >> Eighteen veterans commit suicide each day in this country. Eighteen. Also, on the other end of this spectrum, there's 4 million animals, sheltered animals, killed in this country every year. So, that's what we do. We take 4 million, and we pair them up with 6, 500 per year. It's kind of like a Match. com between a shelter pet and a veteran or emergency first responder. This little guy was used for fighting. He was a toy for other dogs to beat up on and they don't have a choice. And right of the-- Sorry. What a better companion to have than a veteran, like us, or a firefighter or a police officer to help this little guy out, right? He has the physical scars on the outside, but we have the mental scars on the inside, so that's where we heal each other and meet in the middle of the road, you know? I could share anything and everything with her, unconditional love. And so, really, like, I got a good family that loves me, friends that love me-- I love you -- and I got her. Come here. Sit. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4712367/santa-monica-firefighter-dog-cpr/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4712367/santa-monica-firefighter-dog-cpr/"},"headline":"'Faith in Humanity Restored.' 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