By NANCY HILER
She knew her son, Mike "Spike" Babiak, wouldn't hear her if she called for help. He was asleep on the couch in the basement, having taken migraine headache medication that virtually knocks him out.
Cut on the back of her scalp and bleeding, Fenna crawled on her hands and knees a few steps, hoping to open the side door to get in the house to get to her son, or maybe a phone.
"I tried to grab the wood [railing], but I couldn't," she recounted. It took all of her strength to reach up and ring the doorbell, hoping that her son Spike might hear it. He didn't, but his 1-year-old Pomeranian "Rocky" did.
"Rocky was banging on the door and barking like a maniac," explained Spike, a retired Long Island Rail Road worker and avid Harley Davidson rider. "He must've heard my mom crying." Since he couldn't get the door open to get to Fenna, and Spike didn't respond to his incessant barking, Rocky woke Spike up.
The dog is not allowed in the basement of his St. Marks Avenue home, Spike said, and never comes down the staircase, but this time he did. He jumped over furniture and an imposing bearskin rug to get to Spike to wake him up and alert him to Fenna's plight.
"This little dog saved a grandmother of eight, a great-grandmother of six," said Spike.
"I don't know how I fell," she said. "I can't stay on my feet. I wanted to get up and go into the kitchen, but I fell."
Knowing first aid, Spike immediately applied pressure to his mother's head injury to stop the bleeding, then got her to a hospital, where she had a CAT scan to check for a concussion, which she did not have. The cut on the back of her scalp was deep and needed seven staples. Fenna said her shoulder and wrist were also hurt in the fall, and she had scrapes on her knees and arms from trying to crawl to the door.
"I didn't really want the dog at first, not a dog in the house," Fenna said. "Now I like him, I like the dog. Mike say, 'Go to Baba,' and he come to me."
Spike said, "Yeah, she didn't want the dog originally, but now he's her best friend." And, Spike admits, Rocky is his best friend too. In fact, Rocky has a lot of friends. "Everybody knows him in the neighborhood," Spike said. "They get a kick out of him. They ask, 'What's a biker doing with a little dog like that?'"
Rocky is also a big hit with Spike's grandchildren, and with neighborhood youngsters, including those at the pre-school at the Bellmore United Methodist Church, which is across the street from Spike's house. "The kids love the dog," Spike said.
Spike took Rocky to the Blessing of the Animals in October at the church, he said. "Maybe that had something to do with it," he speculated. "Maybe that helped."
Comments about this story? nhiler@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 234.
