There’s a good reason the hero who saved her family and their Prospect Heights home from fire in 1950 wasn’t quoted in any newspapers about her bravery. Averting the potential tragedy was Suzie, a 2 1/2-year-old dog of mixed ancestry belonging to 14-year-old Diana Schuetz, the Palatine Enterprise reported.
On the evening of Sept. 25, Suzie dozed on a rug with Diana while Diana’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Clyde C. Schuetz, and brother, Terry, 9, sat in the living room. Diana’s grandmother, Della Schuetz, was asleep in a bedroom. Suddenly, Suzie rose and growled at the closed door leading to the bedroom area. When Diana tried to quiet her, the dog became more insistent. Finally heeding Suzie’s excited barking, Diana investigated and heard a crackling noise beyond the door.
Diana’s father, Clyde, found a wastebasket ablaze in the bathroom. With flames flickering high against a wall, he lifted the burning basket into the bathtub, where the fire was extinguished. Clyde Schuetz suffered burns on both hands but, thanks to their alert dog, the Schuetz home was not damaged by the fire.
A month later, Suzie was awarded the Ken-L-Ration medal for Distinguished Dog Heroism by Mt. Prospect’s Bayne Freeland, a member of the Quaker Oats Co.’s public relations staff.
Presentation of the medal highlighted Diana’s 14th birthday party. Suzie celebrated by finishing off her dog food dinner with a piece of birthday cake.
