Heroes Archives - Page 26 of 30

Indianapolis Pit Bull Alerts Dog Mom to House Fire

“If it wasn’t for Raja, I probably wouldn’t be here,” Jennifer Green, the 2-year-old Pit Bull’s dog mom, told WISH. “I probably would have been trapped in the basement with smoke inhalation and I would be dead.”

Green was working in the basement of her Indianapolis home Monday afternoon when Raja walked down the stairs and began whimpering.

“I’m like, okay, something’s not right,” Green told WISH. “He’s trying to tell me something.”

Green went upstairs and saw that the back porch was on fire. She managed to get out of the house, but Raja ran back down to the basement. Fortunately, firefighters were able to rescue him, and although he suffered smoke inhalation, Raja is doing fine.

“He’s going to get a steak at some point, so we’ll get all that taken care of,” Green told WISH Tuesday. “He got a lot of treats last night, that’s for sure.”

Green’s house, unfortunately, was a total loss. The fire is believed to have started when discarded, still-smoldering ashes from a fire pit reignited in a trash can. The Indianapolis Fire Department advises people to soak ashes in water before dumping them.

Raja and his family are staying in a motel, which has the hero dog a little flustered, Green said. Their fire insurance and friends are helping them get by.

Green told WISH she wasn’t surprised by what Raja did. “He’s family and he’d do anything for us,” she said.

Photo via Facebook

Lexi the Lab Saves Choking Dog Dad with ‘Heimlich Manuever’

As Alan Spencer ate a pickled onion last week, the skin became lodged in his throat.

The retiree from East Yorkshire, England, tried to cough it up, to no avail.

“It went straight down my throat and blocked the air completely,” Spencer told the Daily Mail. “I was absolutely petrified. I was coughing and choking, and leaping about trying to get it free.”

As he went to the front door to try to get the attention of a passerby, he collapsed next to his Labradors, Lexi and Nancy.

Suddenly 18-month-old Lexi sprang into action — literally.

“All of a sudden, out of the blue, I felt this almighty crash on my back and it was Lexi,” Spencer said.

Lexi had jumped with all four paws on her dog dad’s back, dislodging the onion skin from his windpipe.

“She saved my life, most definitely,” Spencer said. “If it wasn’t for her, I honestly don’t think I would be here. People will say they are only animals and they don’t know what they were doing, but Lexi is so clever. She is very canny.”

Spencer is doing fine, although he said he had some pain in his back and throat for a few days. As for Lexi, she’s been getting plenty of treats as an award for saving his life.

“Every time I even make a slight cough now, Lexi turns her head quickly,” Spencer said.

Rescued Bernese Mountain Dog Rescues Couple Caught in Rip Current

Nico, a 3-year-old Bernese Mountain Dog recently adopted from a shelter, had probably never been in the ocean before. But when he heard a man and woman yelling for help Thursday afternoon in Ventura, Calif., he rushed in to save them.

The two unidentified swimmers were in a dangerous rip current that makes it almost impossible to swim to shore. The woman was caught in it first, and then the same thing happened to the man when he tried to rescue her.

Nico “went right up to the side of the Boogie Board and swung his body around where they were swimming,” Dan Clarke, his dog dad — who happens to be a former lifeguard — told KTLA.

“I just said, ‘Grab him anywhere you can.’ She put her arm around his chest, and was hanging onto the Boogie Board with one arm.”

Nicole Clarke said she teared up when her husband called her and told her about Nico’s heroic act.

“I know how treacherous it is out here,” she told KTLA, “and what a false sense of security it is to be not that far offshore and just get caught, and nobody’s around to help you.”

The couple Nico saved were extremely grateful — and exhausted — once they were safely back on shore and reunited with their two young children.

“Is that a trained lifesaving dog?” one of them asked Clarke.

“I said, ‘That’s the first time I ever saw him do anything like that,” he told KTLA. “It’s pure instinct.”

Dog Digs Hole to Save Puppies from Chile Forest Fire

As a forest fire raged last weekend in Valparaiso, Chile, a very smart stray dog managed to save her nine puppies’ lives by digging a hole under a large metal container.

People living near the area told firefighters they saw the black dog leading the 2-week-old puppies away from the flames and burying them. The mother dog didn’t crawl into the hole, but instead stayed in a “protective corner,” Telemundo reports.

As news crews gathered, paramedics and volunteers dug out the puppies. The pups and their hero mom, who’s been named Negita (“Blacky”), “were all alive and healthy,” one of the rescuers told Telemundo.

The family is now being cared for by volunteers. Local residents have been asking to adopt the puppies as well as their mom.

The fire, believed to have started at an illegal landfill, killed one person and seriously injured five firefighters. Earlier this week, National Forestry Corporation Director Aaron Cavieres said it had been “pretty well contained,” according to the BBC.

Photos via YouTube

Abandoned Puppy Daddy Leads Rescuers to Puppies Deep in Woods

Marina Tarashevsce and John Miller, who volunteer with Dallas Dogrrr–Rescue.Rehab.Reform., have spent the last few weeks trying to catch a Black Lab mix who’d been abandoned in Crawford Park.

Tuesday night, the dog finally approached them. He was barking furiously.

“He’s never acted like that before, and I was worried that maybe he was sick or something had happened to him,” Tarashevsce told CBS 11 News.

Miller, a dog behaviorist, thought the dog was trying to get them to follow him.

“Every time we got closer, he would go away and bark at us, saying, ‘Keep coming. Keep coming my way,’” Miller told CBS 11 News.

So they followed him into a thickly wooded area. Eventually Tarashevsce and Miller began hearing puppies crying.

“Somehow we found them in a burnt-out tree, right by the creek in the mud, just mom and babies — and it’s pitch black and so difficult to get there,” Tarashevsce said.

They rescued the shivering puppies, along with their mother and father, who now have new names: Hero and Mona Crawford.

“He took us to the puppies. That is exactly what he was trying to do,” Miller told CBS 11 News.

“I’ve never seen anything like it. I’ve heard about stuff like this but it was awesome to witness it.”

The 10 puppies and their parents are now living together in a foster home.

“This boy is the best dad, and Mona and her babies are very lucky to have such a very loving protector,” Dallasrrr wrote on its Facebook page yesterday.

The family’s veterinary care is being provided by Mercy Animal Clinic in Garland, Texas. To make a donation to help cover the cost, call the clinic at 972-530-8200.

Photos via Facebook