Canine Hero in Name and Deed Brings $1,079.50 Auction Price

A stray German shepherd dog credited with using its own body to shield a fatally injured dog on a busy San Fernando Valley street last week got a home Monday when a North Hollywood man paid $1,079.50 for it at an auction.

The dog also received a new name. From now on, it will be called Hero, said Mark Marlatt, 65, who purchased the animal in frenzied bidding at the East Valley Animal Shelter in North Hollywood.

The name is appropriate, according to passers-by who said they saw the shepherd March 31 shielding an injured Doberman from cars on Sepulveda Boulevard in Sherman Oaks.

“He was sheltering his little mate,” said Estelle Dvorin, a Woodland Hills dental technician, who attended the auction with her husband. “He came over and led me to the Doberman and then he went back and lay down and sheltered her again. He put his head right over hers.”

Los Angeles city animal regulation officers were unable to save the Doberman, which suffered severe internal injuries when it was struck by a hit-and-run driver. But they kept the shepherd at the shelter for seven days in hopes its owner would claim it.

The auction was held when no one showed up to retrieve the dog.

The sale attracted about 40 people and led to the type of bidding that shelter officials usually see only when they auction unwanted horses.

“They were lined up at the front door,” Robert Pena, senior animal control officer, said. “I tried to remind everybody that the shelter has plenty of other good dogs. But people were only interested in the shepherd.”

The spirited bidding quickly left all but about five of those in the auction crowd behind. As the bidding passed the $700 mark, Marlatt’s wife urged him to drop out, but he refused.

A woman matched Marlatt until he nervously offered $1,000 for the dog, believed to be about 18 months old. State sales tax and a city dog license brought the price to $1,079.50.

“We live on Social Security and our savings and we’d figured on spending a hundred or two at the auction. But the bidding kept going up and I just kept going,” said Marlatt, a retired recreational vehicle salesman.

“I just wish the bidding had stopped at $200 so I could have spent the other $800 on dog food. But we’d rather have a beautiful dog than, say, a new car any day of the week.”