Ann Rolfe owes her life to her dog.The North York resident just returned to her Stafford Drive home in the afternoon of Nov. 27 when the wind started picking up.
She went out to the backyard with her German shepherd, Saba, and attempted to cover the barbecue when the dog started to become aggressive.
"It was totally out of her character," Rolfe said.
Unable to calm Saba, Rolfe took her inside. And that's when she heard a crash.
"I barely had the door shut and then bam!" she said. "It was a terrible, terrible sound. The house shook."
The wind had toppled a 50-foot spruce tree in Rolfe's backyard, crashing in the very spot she had been standing in moments earlier.
"I would have been fiddling around with the barbecue cover," she said. "I owe my life to my dog, totally. If it wasn't for my dog I would have been gone."
And Rolfe also owes gratitude to her Broil King barbecue, which she only had for one month.
"When the tree fell it bounced back after hitting the barbecue," she said. "It saved the house."
But the tree did cause $4,000 in damage to the roof and eavesdropping, she added.
Rolfe, who has lived in the house for 16 years, said she never had issues with the tree, which was planted about eight to 10 feet from the home.
"I had three trees in the backyard and the healthiest one crashed down and almost killed me," she said, adding she plans to plant a bush in the spring to replace the fallen tree. "Ever since this happened I've noticed how many trees are really close to houses. I've never thought of this before."
Rolfe, who said it took her a day to calm her nerves after the incident, vowed to turn over a new leaf.
"I will never complain about anything ever again."