Images of destruction following the deadly tornado in Canton will stay with many in the area for years to come. But, images captured on national news of a man carrying an injured dog out of the rubble is one that struck a chord with people across the country.
The man in the image is Canton resident Don Good.
“That’s a special dog. That’s my son’s dog that passed away a year and a half ago,” Good explained.
Good is a firefighter in Garland and was at work the night of the tornado.
“He was at work watching the weather go on, thinking the worst,” his co-worker JD Schulgen said.
His wife, Charlotte was at home when the tornado literally turned her life upside down.
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“She was in the bathroom, got pulled under her bed… and then out the house,”Schulgen said.
A neighbor found Charlotte unconscious outside the house and Schulgen was able to help her until her husband could arrive.
“She’s physically beat up,” Good said. “Just bruised, battered [and] torn up.”
Schulgen recalled how relieved it was to see his wife.
“He said, ‘my prayers have already been answered. You’re OK,’” Schulgen said.
After Good was able to make sure that his wife was out of harm’s way, he made his way back to what was left of his home.
It was then that he started searching for his dogs – one that held a special place in his heart. It belonged to his 23-year-old son, Zachary who died a little over a year ago after an accident.
When he found the dog, Zane, he felt that special connection again.
“I couldn’t do anything, but cradle him and just carry him all the way up here,” he remembered. “The emotion was overwhelming.”
He hadn’t seen the video or the image that captivated many around the country until we showed him.
“I was thanking God. I was praising God for sparing this dog,” he recalled. “I was just overwhelmed. It just caught up with me. All of this and then finding something so dear to us.”
The Good family had only lived in the house since last July.
“She cried and cried and cried that night [saying] I lost my house, my poor little cute house,” Schulgen said.
Help has come from around the state in the form of fire departments and church groups.
“Don and Charlotte, they can walk up and they don’t have to deal emotionally with the debris and the loss,” Schulgen said.
Friends and family have started a gofundme page to help with expenses.
