Sep 16, 2008

Dogs Dials 911 To Save Owner's Life

G'day Dog Lovers

I'm sure a lot of you would have seen the story that was all over the news yesterday about the German Shepherd who dialed emergency services to save his owner's life.

Joe Stalnaker has a medical condition resulting from injuries he received during military service. That condition means he occasionally has seizures, which occurred while he was at home last week.

But Stalnaker had previously trained his dog, Buddy, to retrieve the phone whenever Joe was showing symptoms of a seizure. If Joe has blacked out or is unable to place the call himself, Buddy uses his teeth to press programmed buttons until a 911 operator comes on the line - which is exactly what Buddy did last week.

18-month-old Buddy can be heard whimpering in a recording of the 911 call, and emergency responders arrived at Joe's house two minutes later. He spent two days in hospital but made a full recovery.

In an interview, Joe said the following: "Buddy, he basically gives me my independence. He's my world. He's my best friend, no question. He's always there, and I just hope I can be as good to him as he's been to me."

It's hard not to feel all warm and fuzzy after a story like that!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is one of a kind