Heroes Archives - Page 29 of 30

Rescued Pit Bull Saves Pennsylvania Family from House Fire

A Pit Bull named Lou, who had been saved from an abusive owner, apparently decided to “paw” it forward to the family who rescued him.

When a fire broke out early Saturday morning in Chris Julian and Kelly Yarbrough’s Carbondale, Penn., house, Lou woke them by barking frantically.

“There`s a fire behind the door. I grabbed the door. It was red hot,” Julian told WNEP. “All I screamed was, ‘Call 911! There`s a fire,’ and by the time I got back to the room, there was no time to think.”

“The fire was coming through the door and the dog saved our lives,” Yarbrough said. “If it wasn’t for him, we’d all be dead right now.”

Although they lost almost everything they owned, the couple, their two younger children and Lou were able to escape without any injuries.

The couple’s two older children weren’t home at the time. Yarbrough told WNEP it was very fortunate that the family had watched a movie together in the master bedroom Friday night, and the two younger children had fallen asleep on the floor. Had they been in their own bedrooms, “I probably wouldn’t have been able to get them out,” she said.

“I’m grateful for God and the way that it did happen,” Yarbrough said. “I’m grateful God gave me Lou, our dog, and I’m grateful for the Red Cross to help us as much as they could.”

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Photo: WNEP

Days Later, Mastiff Who Rescued Baby Needed Rescuing Himself

When Duke, the English Mastiff she and her husband rescued a year ago, woke her in the middle of the night earlier this month, Lucia Catherine Piscoglio, of Swedesboro, N.J., knew something was terribly wrong.

Piscoglio checked the video baby monitor next to her bed. The face of her 9-month-old daughter, Ava Jane, was buried in the bumper pad of her crib.

“As Duke and I ran to her side, I didn’t feel her inhale or exhale,” Piscolglio wrote on the Duke & Vaccination Awareness Facebook group page. “I am not positive if she ever stopped breathing, because I scooped her up so quickly and she began to cry from being startled. Duke gave her a quick lick on the head and we sat in there all together for awhile.”

Ava Jane and Duke, who’s 20 months old, have a special bond that was formed even before the baby was born.

“Throughout pregnancy he stayed by my side,” Piscolglio wrote. “Once Ava Jane was born, he immediately became her best friend. They never leave each other’s side. He sleeps outside her door. He is there for every diaper change, every bath and whatever else we decide to do.”

Just a few days after performing his heroic deed, Duke himself needed rescuing when he suffered a severe allergic reaction to a Lyme disease vaccination.

“He was swollen all over, not eating, not drinking, not going to the bathroom or even moving,” Piscoglio wrote.

Duke was placed in critical care at a local animal hospital, where veterinarians determined he had vasculitis, which destroys blood vessels, as well as hemorrhaging in his eye.

As soon as Piscoglio posted Duke’s story on the Facebook group page Mastiffs Rule Drool is Cruel, she received offers from around the world to help with his vet bills, according to NBC10.

Nearly $1,500 for his care has been raised as of today via the crowdfunding page Dukes Vet Bills.

The Facebook group Duke & Vaccination Awareness, which Piscoglio created after her dog’s ordeal, currently has about 345 members.

Duke was released from the hospital, but he still has swelling and difficulty walking. “He is being treated with a steroid pill, antibiotic, Benadryl twice a day and Pepcid,” Piscoglio wrote. “He has also been placed on a strict diet.”

Piscoglio noted that she is not against vaccines, but urged pet parents to educate themselves. “Ask questions, because we almost lost Duke to something preventable,” she wrote.

“This is a story that can show many that the world is not so bad and that there is kindness everywhere,” Piscoglio told NBC10. “Duke is Ava Jane’s guardian Angel. Now Duke has many guardian Angels.”

Photos via Facebook

Des Moines 8th Graders Save Dog Stuck in Mud

As George Holtz, Maev Cleary, Nate Stenberg and other eighth-grade students from Bergman Academy in Des Moines, Iowa, jogged around a drained pond Thursday during gym class, they noticed two dogs below them in the mud. One was unable to move.

“Whatever,” the teens did not say.

While others in the surrounding park did nothing, the eighth graders immediately sprang into action.

“The black dog was right here and looking at the dog with concern,” Holtz told WHOtv.com. “And then we put this stick down so then we wouldn’t sink in the mud when we tried to rescue them.”

The trapped dog’s height was a problem. “It didn’t have very long legs, so it was stuck in there pretty good and it couldn’t get out because its legs were too short,” Cleary told WHOtv.com.

The group was eventually able to free the scared and shivering dog. They contacted the Animal Rescue League of Iowa, which, happily, reunited the microchipped dogs with their owner.

“You don’t think of kids actually going out of their way to do something, out of their comfort zone, for a strange animal,” their proud teacher, Cristy Reeves, told WHOtv.com. “It was an awesome feeling after they got finished, because they saved their lives.”

As for the group now being hailed as heroes, Stenberg said, “If you want to call us heroes, I guess you can.”

Teenagers.

Golden Retrievers Help Save Elderly Dog Mom After She Falls

Judy Muhe, 76, has Parkinson’s disease, and exposure to cold air can mean trouble for her.

When she took a bad spill in her Palmdale, Calif., kitchen, bruising her skull and shattering her shoulder, her two Golden Retrievers rushed to her. Dodger and Higgins snuggled up beside her for two days, with no food or water, as she drifted in and out of consciousness.

“They let me know I was not alone,” Muhe told KABC.

“Dodger kept nuzzling me with his nose and Higgins was laying right beside me. I don’t know what I would have done without them. I just love my dogs so much.”

Kathy Jacobs, a friend of Muhe’s, became concerned when her phone calls went unanswered. She and her husband used a spare key to enter Muhe’s house.

“The dogs were right here with her. They actually ran to the door and then they ran back to where she was, like showing us she was there,” Jacobs told KABC.

Jacobs believes the dogs saved her friend’s life.

“Because of her injuries and the time she spent laying on the floor and dehydrating, and being with her Parkinson’s, we probably would have lost her,” she told KABC.

Muhe, who has had two surgeries on her shoulder since the incident, said she had no doubt her Golden Retrievers would do the same thing if it happened again.

“My guardians, yes,” she said.

KABC reporter Leo Stallworth — who said he was going to go home and hug his own two dogs — said Muhe had just one request: “Love our pets.”

Quick-Thinking Cadet Saves Texas A&M’s Collie Mascot During Football Game

The best play during Saturday’s football game between the Texas A&M Aggies and SMU Mustangs didn’t occur on the field.

As the Mustangs’ Der’rikk Thompson raced toward the end zone, Aggies defensive back Nick Harvey pushed him, causing the wide receiver to go sprinting out of bounds — and directly toward Reveille VIII, the mascot known as the “First Lady of Aggieland,” who was napping nearby.

Ryan Kreider, a Texas A&M sophomore who serves as the “mascot corporal” for Reveille, immediately sprang into action. With his right side, he blocked Thompson and pushed him off in another direction, away from the Collie.

“I was just doing my job,” Kreider said in a video by Brent Zwerneman. “He was coming straight toward Rev, and the first thing that comes to mind is, ‘I’ve got to protect her,’ right? So football instincts took over. I went ahead and lowered the shoulder, and made sure he wasn’t going to hit her.”

Kreider said Thompson seemed surprised, but then ran back onto the field without speaking to him. “He was like, ‘Oh! Well, hopefully I won’t go back here again — I might get hit harder!'”

Reveille VIII is cared for by Texas A&M’s Corps of Cadets Company E-2, known as the “mascot company.” Reveille is considered the cadet general and must always be addressed as “Miss Rev, ma’am” by the cadets, according to Aggie Traditions.

Each year a sophomore is appointed mascot corporal and becomes Reveille’s main caretaker — this year, the honor went to Kreider. Reveille accompanies the mascot corporal everywhere, and is apparently granted a lot of authority. If she barks during a class, the class is cancelled. If she decides to sleep on the bed, the mascot corporal is supposed to sleep on the floor.

Texas A&M has had mascots named Reveille since the early 1930s. The first one, a mixed-breed stray, got the name because she would howl along when “Reveille” was played in the morning to wake up the cadets. Most of her successors have been purebred Collies who were donated to the university.

Reveille VIII became the First Lady of Aggieland at the start of the 2008-2009 school year. She is now 8 years old and will retire next spring, living out the rest of her days “at the state-of-the-art Stevenson Companion Animal Life-Care Center on campus, where she will be able to interact with the Aggie community,” according to the tamuTimes. And here’s hoping that, just like the original one, Reveille IX will be a rescue dog.

At yesterday’s game, the Aggies beat the Mustangs 58-6, but the real winner — and most valuable non-player — was, by far, mascot corporal Kreider.

Photo via Vine