Category: Heroes

RIP Kabang, Hero Dog Who Lost Her Snout Saving 2 Girls’ Lives in 2012

As cousins Dina Bunggal, 11, and Princess Diansing, 3, crossed a street in the Philippines in December 2011, a motorcycle sped toward them. Seemingly out of nowhere, Bunggal’s Shepherd mix, Kabang, jumped in front of the bike, saving the girls’ lives.

Kabang also survived her heroic act, but suffered a gruesome injury in the process: Her snout was torn off when the motorcycle struck her head-on. Remarkably, she was able to adjust — for example, she figured out how to eat by using her paws to scoop food into her mouth.

To prevent Kabang from developing a life-threatening infection, she needed reconstructive surgery so her wounds would close, and there weren’t any vets in the area with the expertise to perform such a complicated procedure.

Fortunately, veterinary surgeons Boaz Arzi and Frank Verstraete of the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital at the University of California, Davis, offered to reconstruct Kabang’s upper jaw using state-of-the-art equipment. Philippine Airlines donated round-trip airfare for Kabang to be flown to Northern California. The cost of her surgery, which was over $20,000, was mostly covered by donations from animal lovers around the world.

Treating Heartworm, Cancer and a Missing Snout

But before reconstruction surgery could begin, UC Davis veterinarians discovered two more serious problems: Kabang had heartworm disease as well as a malignant vaginal tumor that needed to be removed. Fortunately, both were successfully treated. A few months later Kabang was free of both heartworm and cancer, and finally ready for surgery.

The first surgery repaired her dental work. The second one, which took five hours, closed the wound on her face using skin flaps brought forward from the top and sides of her head. Her nasal openings were also reconstructed and stents were placed inside them to form nostrils.

In 2013, seven months after she’d arrived at UC Davis, Kabang was ready to return to her home in the Philippines. In the meantime, she received several awards honoring her heroism, including the Animal Hero award from the American Red Cross.

Living Happily Ever After

I wrote several stories about Kabang for i Love Dogs, and have wondered in the years since then about whatever happened to the hero dog. Kabang spent the next nine years enjoying a healthy life. When her owner, Rudy Benggal, died in 2015, she was taken in by her longtime veterinarian, Dr. Anton Lim, who had accompanied her to UC Davis in 2012 and cared for her during her stay there.

On May 17, Lim announced that the 13-year-old hero dog had died peacefully in her sleep. “I last played with her at 4 p.m. and was supposed to feed her again her dinner,” Lim told the Inquirer, adding that Kabang had never lost her voracious appetite. “I found her motionless with no external sign or prior sickness,” he said.

Kabang’s permanent resting place will be beside a statue being erected in her honor in Zamboanga City.

“Rest in peace, sweetheart,” the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine wrote on its Facebook page Monday.

Photo: Care for Kabang/Facebook

Hero Pit Bull Astro Awarded for Saving Owner’s Life

When Bertha Martinez saw Astro, a stray American Pit Bull Terrier mix, wandering the streets of her El Paso neighborhood last year, she initially was reluctant to rescue him. After all, the media tends to only focus on negative stories about these dogs, so she had concerns. But she couldn’t resist the friendly dog’s charms and decided to give him a forever home.

One year later, Astro has paid it forward by saving the life of Martinez’s son when he had a medical emergency.

Astro ran and got the attention of a good Samaritan and led him to Martinez’s son. The good Samaritan called 911. Emergency responders from the El Paso Fire Department (EPFD) soon arrived and rushed Martinez’s son to a hospital, where his life was saved.

In recognition of Astro’s heroism, the EPFD had a special ceremony during which the Pit Bull received a medal and a dog-safe cake.

“The 911 caller reported that a dog led him to the patient in need,” EPFD spokesman Enrique Duenas-Aguilar said, according to the El Paso Times. “This, of course, got a lot of attention. And the crews did confirm when they found the patient, there was a dog protecting his owner. We know the dog was even trying to climb into the ambulance.”

Duenas-Aguilar said the EPFD was “glad to be here to honor Astro for his bravery, his friendship and his commitment that he shared to his owner.”

Martinez told the El Paso Times that before adopting Astro, she had always been afraid of Pit Bulls. “But now I think if people have space for a dog, they should consider adopting a Pit Bull,” she said. “There are a lot of dogs in shelters and we need to find them homes and treat them well.”

So true! Like Martinez, I used to be nervous around Pit Bulls because of all the negative press about them. But my boyfriend loved the breed and so back in 1995 I agreed to welcome Larry, an American Staffordshire Terrier, into our home. Larry turned out to be the sweetest dog I’ve ever had, and he totally changed my mind about Pit Bulls. Although Larry never saved my life, he was an amazing (untrained) emotional support dog and the best cuddlebug you could ask for. He died in 2007 and I still miss him.

Pit Bulls rule! Congrats to Astro, the goodest boy of them all.

Photo: @EPTXFire/Twitter

Watch a Hero Dog Stop Traffic When Her Owner Has a Seizure

It’s not uncommon for trained seizure detection dogs to spring into action to help their owners during medical emergencies, but what an untrained, one-year-old Maremma mix named Clover did this week was pretty doggone amazing.

As Haley Moore was walking Clover in their Ottawa neighborhood Tuesday, Moore suddenly had a seizure and fell to the ground. After checking Moore, the big white dog removed her leash from her dog mom’s hand and then ran into the street to stop a passing driver.

“It was really impressive, the dog actually blocked my way,” the driver, Dryden Oatway, told CTV. “The whole time she was backing down the street she had eyes on Hailey; didn’t look away from her. She kept her distance from me but made sure her owner was okay and that was amazing,”

As Oatway tried to help Moore, Clover got the attention of another driver, Danielle Pilon, who also stopped to help.

“You could tell she didn’t want to leave her even when we were with her, but I think it just came to her that she was like, ‘I need to go home to let them know she needs help,'” Pilon told CTV.

As Oatway and Pilon tended to her dog mom, Clover ran home and barked frantically at Moore’s dad, Randall Moore.

Thanks to Clover and the good Samaritans who stopped to help, Moore was taken to a hospital and has recovered from her seizure. “All I remember is waking up in the ambulance and being really confused, just like, ‘What is going on?'” she told CTV.

Moore doesn’t know what caused her to have a seizure. “If this ends up happening again, I feel 10 times safer and I know she will be there for me,” she told CTV.

As a reward — and I’m betting there will be official hero dog honors for Clover in the near future — Clover was treated to a delicious dinner.

“[My wife] Diane comes home with a couple of big steaks and I thought, ‘Wow, this is great, I’m getting a big steak,’ and she said, ‘No, it’s for Clover for doing such a great job,'” Randall Moore told CTV.

Clover’s heroics were captured by a security video camera. Really good girl, Clover!

Photo: CTV News/YouTube

Rescued German Shepherd Rescues New Dog Dad Having a Stroke

It didn’t take long for former pound pup Sadie, a German Shepherd whose life was saved in September by Brian Myers of Teaneck, N.J., to pay it forward. When her new dog dad had a stroke last month, Sadie helped to save his life.

After Myers, who lives alone, collapsed on the floor in the middle of the night, Sadie lied down beside him, whimpering and licking his face to help keep him awake. Myers grabbed her collar.

“She instinctively started to pull backwards,” he told NBC New York. “That was enough to enable me to shuffle with her out of where I was.” With Sadie’s help, he was able to stand up and get to a phone to call for help.

“I don’t know how she knew to do it, but that she was able to pull me the way she did, I was so grateful to her,” Myers added. If Sadie hadn’t taken action, he said, “I may as well have been worse off than I am right now.”

It’s also pretty amazing that 6-year-old Sadie was adopted at all. The German Shepherd had been surrendered to the Ramapo-Bergen Animal Refuge in Oakland, N.J., when her owner had to relocate to a property that didn’t allow certain dog breeds. (Grrr! Yet another reason why breed bans are so unfair.)

“She was confused and seemingly lost upon rescue, having suddenly lost the only family that she knew,” the shelter wrote on its Facebook page. “Sadie is a loyal dog, but nervous and protective with new people, making her a more difficult placement.” The shelter also noted that Sadie was “especially nervous with men.”

But the night that Myers brought Sadie to her new forever home, “she jumped up and put her paws on my shoulders and gave me a kiss on the face,” he told TODAY. “And it just seemed to me that she was saying, ‘Thank you for rescuing me.’”

“To us, Brian’s a hero because he saved Sadie,” Megan Brinster, a staff member at the Ramapo-Bergen Animal Refuge, told NBC New York. “And now Sadie saved him, so it’s like the most incredible match.”

A Very Special RBARI Story! RBARI Alumni Sadie saved owner’s life, as she drags him to help after suffering a…

Posted by Ramapo-Bergen Animal Refuge on Tuesday, February 2, 2021

When Myers had COVID-19 and was confined to bed, Sadie loyally stayed by his side as he recovered. He told TODAY the virus may have caused him to develop a blood clot, which led to the stroke. He is currently recovering in a rehabilitation facility while Sadie is temporarily staying with his brother. Myers told NBC New York he misses his hero dog every day.

“I can’t wait to see her and give her a hug and a kiss and I’ll probably cry my eyes out doing so,” he said. According to the shelter, Myers and Sadie “FaceTime every night.” Awww!

Myers has a very important message for anyone thinking about adopting a shelter pet: “There are many other dogs there, waiting to be somebody’s hero,” he told NBC New York.

Update: Myers and his hero dog were reunited on Feb. 9 outside his rehabilitation facility. Here’s the video. (Tissue alert!!)

 

To help the Ramapo-Bergen Animal Refuge care for more potential hero dogs, you can make an online donation.

Photo: Ramapo-Bergen Animal Refuge/Facebook

Hero Homeless Man Rescues All Pets from Burning Animal Shelter

As Keith Walker approached the W-Underdogs animal shelter in Atlanta on Dec. 18, he noticed smoke pouring from the building.

Instead of calling and waiting for help, Walker ran inside and saved every one of the animals — six dogs and 10 cats — trapped inside. One of the dogs happened to be his own pet, a Pit Bull named Bravo.

“I was nervous as hell, I’m not going to lie,” Walker told CNN. “I was really scared to go in there with all that smoke.” But he thought about how much he loved Bravo and decided to take immediate action. “My dog is my best friend, and I wouldn’t be here without him, so I knew I had to save all those other dogs,” he said.

Walker, who is 53 and has been homeless since he was 13, is allowed to let Bravo spend nights at the shelter, thanks to W-Underdogs founder Gracie Hamlin. He was coming to the shelter to pick up Bravo when he saw the fire.

“He is my guardian angel,” Hamlin told CNN. She said that even the firefighters didn’t want to handle the dogs and were waiting for animal control to arrive, “but Keith was already in the building pulling out the cats and dogs until they were all safe.”

The fire left the shelter uninhabitable, but fortunately, Hamlin had already planned to move to a new location later this month. The rescued animals are now at the new location, safe and sound.

The mission of W-Underdogs, according to its website, is “to empower youth through service to animals and communities.” The nonprofit organization teaches kids how to manage, care for, and train dogs and cats. “They learn personal discipline and responsibility as they rehabilitate the animals,” the website states.

As you can imagine, Hamlin has been flooded with requests to help homeless hero Walker. According to the W-Underdogs Facebook page, the only verified online fundraiser is this GoFundMe campaign. As of Dec. 29, over $47,000 has been raised to help support Walker.

To make a donation to W-Underdogs so it can continue helping people with challenges in caring for their pets, visit its GoFundMe page or its website, and check out its Amazon Wish List for needed supplies.

Photo: Keith Walker Atlanta Animal Shelter Hero GoFundMe page

Exit mobile version