With winds gusting at hurricane force, Mochi was getting nervous. He started whining, as puppies often do when things don’t seem right.

“He saved my life,” said Sara DeSante, who was napping shortly before a gigantic Douglas fir came crashing through the roof of her Forest Knolls home on Sunday, Feb. 4. “If it weren’t for this puppy needing my attention, I could have been lying there when it fell.”

Ms. DeSante made it outside…