LOST DOG WAS ANSWER TO HEARING LOSS.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

Odds and ends from around the Valley:

If you own a dog, you know the Fourth of July is the worst night of the year for pets because they get scared by the fireworks.

They may try to fool us into thinking they're all Rambos at heart, but let a firecracker or bottle rocket go off, and my dogs are under the couch.

Which is why Matt and Jodi Berlin of Northridge dropped off their 1 1/2- year-old miniature golden retriever, Jack, at a friend's house Tuesday on their way to the Dodgers game.

``We knew the noise from the fireworks going off that night would scare him, so we weren't about to leave him alone,'' Matt said.

Jack and Jodi have grown very close this past year. A tumor in Jodi's auditory nerves five years ago caused her to lose her hearing. So Jack's been working hard to become her ears.

``He has been training the last year to be a hearing dog and is doing great,'' Matt said. ``He lets Jodi know when someone's at the door or the phone's ringing.

``He's become her lifeline, her communication to the outside world.''

That's why the Berlins were devastated when they got home from the Dodgers game and post-game fireworks show about 11 p.m. Tuesday and listened to the message on their answering machine.

Their friend had taken Jack and her own dog for a hike in the Haynes Canyon area of Tujunga, and Jack had run away.

``Jack and her dog are buddies, and they went into the reservoir together. But something must have freaked Jack because he took off and ran away,'' Matt said.

Their friend said she would help them look for Jack in the morning, but Matt and Jodi couldn't wait. They drove out to the reservoir at midnight and searched for two hours.

At sunrise, they returned with their friend and searched the area again -- putting up posters in the neighborhood offering a $1,000 reward.

So far, no luck. The Berlins, married nine years, hope that readers of this column will keep an eye out for Jack.

``He's gold and blond, full-grown, but still looks like a puppy -- small and chunky,'' Matt said.

Jack was wearing a collar with the Berlins' phone number -- [phone] -- and address.

He also has a microchip implanted between his shoulders that can be scanned at any vet's office for the same information.

Congratulations to San Fernando reserve police Officer Paul Labella for being awarded the prestigious Carnegie Hero Medal for his March 2005 rescue of two boys who were swept down the Pacoima Wash during heavy rains.

Labella, who makes his living as an insurance investigator, is one of 15 people in the United States and Canada who received the medal and a $4,000 grant this year for ``risking their lives to an extraordinary degree while saving or attempting to save the lives of others.''

As I wrote in a column at the time, when the boys failed to grasp a lifesaver that Labella threw, the 39-year-old father of two jumped into the raging water, grabbed the boys and kept their heads above water while they rode out the rapids to safety.

There was never a doubt about what he had to do, Labella said at the time.

``I'd want someone to do that for my little girls,'' he said.

That courage was exactly the kind industrialist Andrew Carnegie was looking to reward when he founded the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission in 1904.

``My wife said she couldn't be any more proud of me, and my two little girls are still too young -- 1 1/2 and 3 -- to understand,'' a smiling Labella said Wednesday after learning he had won the award.

The medal will be placed on the fireplace mantel -- and the $4,000 into a college fund for his little girls.

Class guy. Class act.

dennis.mccarthy(at)dailynews.com

[phone]

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Photo:

Jodi Berlin displays a picture of her dog, Jack, who went missing while in a friend's care on the Fourth of July. Berlin lost her hearing five years ago, and Jack was six months into training to be her hearing dog and to alert her when the phone is ringing or someone is at the door.

David Sprague/Staff Photographer