Chris Smith: 12-year-old Vinnie Schenone now has to house-train his wish come true

Vinnie Schenone is a gently animated 12-year-old boy with two birthdays, special instructions for safe living and, suddenly, a dog of his own.

The Rohnert Park kid walked into one of his town's pizzerias on Wednesday afternoon with his guard down. “I thought it was just a normal lunch,” he said.

Instead, Vinnie was ambushed on the shaded patio at Mary's Pizza Shack by a party of dozens of relatives and friends, and also the teachers who saved his life a few years back.

Sporting a summer buzz cut, Vinnie stood stunned at Mary's as two strangers, John McEntagart and Barbara Pedersen, approached and handed him a calzone-sized black Labrador puppy.

“We'd like you to meet Stan,” announced Pedersen, who volunteers with McEntagart at Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area. Snuggling the puppy to his chest, Vinnie looked like someone happier than ever to be alive.

Why Stan? It's short for Stanford. See below.

We last wrote of Vinnie the day his heart stopped just after recess in the spring of 2015 at Rohnert Park's Evergreen School. All the staffers knew Vinnie couldn't play hard or get too hot because of a congenital heart condition, but despite precautions he collapsed in cardiac arrest.

His fourth-grade teacher, Erin Scull, ran to him. Joaquin Bernal, who teaches fifth grade, did, too.

While other Evergreen teachers called 911 and moved the other nearly 300 students back to class, Bernal commenced chest compressions on the unresponsive Vinnie as Scull called out the proper rhythm.

Vinnie showed flickering signs of life when Rohnert Park police/firefighters arrived and went to work on him. An ambulance rushed him to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, and from there a helicopter whisked him to Stanford University Medical Center.

Vinnie left Stanford with a pacemaker and defibrillator implanted in him and instructions not to play sports or do anything too strenuous.

His mom, Kristina Schenone, said, “He lives knowing he has a condition, and he does the best he can.” Vinnie now celebrates his start-of-life birthday on Nov. 27 and the first day of his new life, March 23.

Enter Make-A-Wish, which raises money through donations and events such as a croquet gala at Sonoma-Cutrer Vineyards and uses it to encourage and lift the spirits of ailing children. Make-A-Wish volunteers learned that Vinnie has a special connection to dogs and would like more than anything to have one of is own.

His mom had told him he'd get one before long, but he was expecting only a pizza when he walked into his surprise puppy party on Wednesday.

Vinnie said that three years after his heart stopped, life is good.

The beaming lad added, “It's a lot better now that I have a dog.”

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LIFE SEEMS BETTER, too, to lifelong music lover Paul Dooley as he readies for Sunday's Santa Rosa Symphony performance of his composition, “Sonoma Strong,” at a free community concert at the Green Music Center.

As a student, Dooley was mentored by Santa Rosa High music teacher Mark Wardlaw, chorus directors Dan Earl and Bob Worth, and composition teachers Doc Collins and Charles Sepos.

Dooley teaches now at the University of Michigan.

Joining the symphony orchestra at the 7 p.m. concert will be Mariachi Champaña Nevín.

Though tickets for the lawn at Green Music Center are free, you need to get one from the center's box office either in advance or on Sunday.

Chris Smith is at 707-521-5211 or chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.