A motorcycle crash almost took a woman’s life in September, but her rescuer was on his paws and ready to help.

On Thursday, Suzanne Fitzsimmons was reunited with her rescuer, Max, a dog who was adopted by Ursula Trudeau two weeks before Fitzsimmons’ crash.

“I’ve had lots of dogs but never had an experience like this one,” Trudeau said.

She said it was a September day like any other, and while taking Max on his afternoon walk he suddenly stopped and pointed to an area that was covered by brush and trees.

“I walked in and looked and thought, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s a body,’” Trudeau said.

Lying in the brush, which was over 20 feet from the road, Trudeau said, was Fitzsimmons.

Fitzsimmons said she was on her way to work when she lost control of her motorcycle on a sharp turn near Trudeau’s home.

Officials said she had been lying there unconscious and severely injured for hours, and they said she might have been there even longer if not for Max.

“I think I probably would have walked on by,” Trudeau said.

Trudeau hadn’t seen Fitzsimmons since the accident, but the two met Thursday for the first time in the hospital.

Fitzsimmons said Max is a hero, and if it wasn’t for him she might have died.

Sitting comfortably between the two women, Max seemed to be taking his new found fame in stride.

New official statistics on the UK’s wild bird population show no significant changes to the pattern of the last 37 years.

The government’s indicators cover breeding seabird and woodland bird populations and wintering wetland birds, and assesses progress against the government’s Public Service Agreement target for breeding farmland birds in England.

The all-species indicator shows that, on average, the population index of 116 breeding bird species in the UK has remained broadly stable throughout the period since 1970, except for four new woodland species which have declined significantly in recent years.

The indicator for farmland birds in the UK is about 55 per cent of its 1970 value but has remained fairly stable since the early 1990s. The farmland bird index gives a similar picture of relative stability following decline. There is no evidence yet of any reverse in the decline.

The woodland bird indicator for the UK is about 20 per cent lower than in the early 1970s. The most severe decline took place in the late 1980s/early 1990s, with the indicator broadly stable in recent years.

The indicator of breeding seabird species in the UK is 30 per cent higher than in 1970. Populations peaked in the late 1980s, since when there is evidence of a small decline.

Changes in seabird population may not yet fully reflect the low breeding success rates of some species during recent years because seabirds reach maturity slowly and are long-lived.

The UK wintering wetland birds indicator rose by nearly 80 per cent between 1975/76 and 2001/02, but there are signs of a decline in more recent years.

These indicators, which are included in the government’s Sustainable Development Strategy indicators, show changes in the breeding and wintering populations of common native bird species.

Bird populations are considered to be a good indicator of the broad state of wildlife and countryside because they occupy a wide range of habitats and are high in the food chain.

Zoe got a good deal.

The Kansas City Zoo’s newest addition to its pachyderm pack arrived by truck Tuesday from a small zoo in Waco, Texas. Here she will inhabit one of the largest elephant yards in the country.

“It’s like coming to an elephant penthouse,” said Scott McCall, manager of the elephant staff.

Zoe, 22, was exploring a pen outside the elephant barn Thursday.

She knows how to paint with her trunk.

“She’s a quick elephant, very smart,” McCall said.

Perched atop a tree branch draped between two walls in a small flight room, a red-tailed hawk at the Lake Erie Nature and Science Center stared intensely into the eyes of the few humans standing in the room.

Although just a few feet separated the predatory bird from the humans, the 1-year-old bird did not attack — its razor-sharp beak and needle-like talons were not a threat.

That’s because this animal — believed to once have been kept as a pet — was too familiar with humans.

Back in August, the bird came to the center weighing a bit more than 2 pounds. It had been found on a street in Cleveland with plastic ties around its ankles and its flight feathers cut. It was dehydrated and emaciated, and animal welfare workers said it was obvious that someone tried to keep the hawk as a pet — illegal in Ohio under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

“Putting plastic ties on an animal to use as a leash is a pretty horrible thing to do especially to a natural predator like a red-tailed hawk,” wildlife rehabilitation coordinator Megan Tadiello said. “You can never fully replicate what is in the wild. There are instructs a bird of prey has to learn just by being in the wild that cannot be duplicated in captivity.”

Still, Tadiello took the first step toward reversing the animal’s dependence on humans for food and sparking its natural predatory instincts Thursday when the bird was released into an outdoor flight cage at the Bay Village educational center.

This comes after weeks of extensive rehabilitation to hydrate and nourish the underweight bird as well as several procedures where the cut, damaged flight feathers were pulled to encourage the growth of healthy feathers.

“It’s so hard to say comfortably how long this will take. This is a bird that has never been in the wild, but we’re not giving up on it,” Tadiello said. “All we do know is that a hawk that cannot hunt for food will not bode well in the wild.”

After spending weeks in the small outdoor cage at the science center, the hawk will be released to the Medina Raptor Center, where it will be released into a larger flight cage and introduced to the thrill of hunting live rats.

In the meantime, the animal will learn further not to trust humans.

“We will not harm the animal or give it the same poor care it received, but we will limit our time with it,” Tadiello said. “It doesn’t even have a name. You name pets, and a red-tailed hawk is not a pet. It is a wild animal and it’s time we returned it to the wild.”

The Ohio Division of Wildlife is investigating to determine who had the hawk. Offenders can be fined up to $500 and possibly face six months in jail.

Volunteers with Pacific Wildlife Care report that they have found a permanent home for a visually impaired golden eagle they have been rehabilitating for several months.

Zoo to You, a conservation educational organization based in Paso Robles, will pick up the bird today.

It will be used in the group’s educational outreach programs, said Kelly Vandenheuvel, who has been caring for the eagle at her Cayucos ranch.

The female eagle was found near Santa Margarita Lake. It had flown into something hard enough to detach its retina and cause brain damage.

That eagle is one of three the group has been rehabilitating since August. One has already been released, and another is scheduled for release in several weeks, pending a veterinarian’s approval.

Since a story about the eagles appeared in The Tribune on Oct. 12, the wildlife rehabilitation group has received $1,200 in donations to help feed the eagles, Vandenheuvel said. It costs as much as $15 a day to purchase the mice and rats that each eagle eats.

“We spent more on raptor food this year than we ever have before in previous years,” she said, “so these donations will help to pay for some of that expense.”

This was a pit bull mauling everyone can cheer.

Except Anthony Easley.

Easley, 37, was arraigned Thursday on charges of an attempted sexual assault and burglary that took place four months ago in San Jose. It was an attack stopped, and ultimately solved, authorities say, by the ferocious protectiveness of Maya, a 4-year-old pit bull who ended up with the suspect’s blood on her face.

The sun was just coming up June 17 and the 31-year-old single mom - who asked not to be identified - was coming back to an empty house. Although she had spent the evening celebrating her birthday at the San Pablo Casino, her spirits were low - she had recently lost her job.

As she started to unlock her front door, she saw a shadow out of the corner of her eye. Someone shoved her from behind.

“My boyfriend works for the police department,” she screamed at the mysterious intruder, “and he will be home any minute.”

The desperate fib died in her throat as the man began strangling her. “Shut up,” he growled as she tried to stab him with her keys.

“Then, I saw my dog’s white streak coming from the other room,” the victim said. “Maya,” she gurgled, “get him!”

Maya attacked. She had always been a gentle dog, ever since the victim adopted the pit bull mix as a puppy from the Humane Society, falling in love with the white dog with brown spots and floppy ears.

Now, Maya was tearing and ripping the stranger’s arms.

The man tried to fight off Maya with one hand while keeping his other hand around the woman’s throat.

“That’s when I grabbed him,” said the victim, “where the sun doesn’t shine.”

At that very painful moment, the attacker let her go.

With Maya snarling and snapping, the attacker gave up. The victim held Maya by her collar as the attacker fled.

When San Jose police officers Iain Fry and Chris Kubasta arrived at the house they didn’t find much beyond the signs of a violent struggle. But then, they noticed what looked like a smudge of red above the dog’s right eye - possibly the suspect’s blood and DNA evidence.

Because Maya was frenzied the victim had to hold her behind a door, while the officer reached around and swabbed a spot just above the dog’s snapping teeth - once, twice, three times.

Even Fry didn’t think much would come of the sample.

“We never thought they would even run ‘em,” Fry said of the swabs. “I mean, there’s no way - you are talking about one drop of blood on a dog’s head. A million to one.”

The victim’s descriptions helped create a composite sketch.

After checking all sex registrants and other violent parolees in the area, detective Ryan Kimber ran out of leads within a few days.

“In these stranger cases, where there is no relationship between the attacker and the victim, well, those can be very difficult to solve,” said Lt. Mark McIninch, who heads San Jose police’s Sexual Assault Investigations Unit.

Maya was now hyper-protective, snarling at anyone who came too close to the house or to the woman and her 11-year-old son. Always proud of her strength and independence, the woman said that after the attack, she was scared, depressed, barely able to get out of the house and crying all the time.

“I thought he would come back all pissed off,” she said, “and finish off what he did.”

But months later, Fry and Kubasta’s diligence paid off.

The Santa Clara County crime lab extracted human DNA from the swab. It was then matched through the state’s database of samples taken from anyone convicted of a felony and those arrested or charged with a homicide or sex offense. Ultimately, all information led to Easley, police and prosecutors said.

“It was the saving grace and one of those ‘above and beyond’ efforts,” Kimber said of the police work. “It’s what saved this case.”

Easley was previously convicted of two sexual felonies in Solano County, according to court documents. He also was convicted of robbery in Contra Costa County. Now, as a third striker, he faces life in prison if convicted, said Santa Clara County prosecutor Michael Fletcher.

When San Jose police called detective J. Melville in Vallejo, he volunteered to find the suspect. Several hours later, he did. Easley lived near the police department.

Kimber told the victim, who had bought a two-pound steak for Maya after the attack.

The woman went home and cried. She hugged Maya.

“What,” she said “would I do without you?”