On April 27, 2022, Sarah was working in her office on the computer taking care of things. It was a beautiful day outside, so we decided to turn off the A/C and open the doors and windows.
Both Hero and Sirius seemed very connected with Sarah all morning. I didn’t think anything of it and did my own thing. I decided to go out in the back yard and water the vegetables.
After about 15 minutes, Sirius comes bolting out the back door and is headed to me at full speed. I initially don’t think anything of it as she does this a lot when she is playing. This time she plowed right into me, taking me off my feet. I get up and ask her what’s the matter and she starts to run back to the door of the house. I realize she desperately wants me to follow her, so I do as fast as I can.
I get into the house, and she runs to Sarah’s office and looks at me with her eyes that tell me that there is trouble. I ran into the office, and couldn’t see any sign of Sarah, or Hero. I panicked and thought that she must have had an episode and wandered off.
Then I turn around and see Hero sitting across Sarah’s lap on top of her arms, she is crying. I come over to her to see what is wrong and Hero stands up, steps away from her, turns around and puts his nose by her hand. That’s when I saw the blood. She tried to cut her wrist. I called 911 and the Veteran Suicide hotline. They got an ambulance there quickly and the crew asked what she cut herself with, she told them, then they asked where it was, and she said that Hero knocked the knife out of her hands and then sat on them, keeping her from hurting herself anymore.
If it wasn’t for Hero and Sirius recognizing that Sarah was in a bad place, then working together to keep her safe and getting my attention, Sarah would have been successful that day.
Sarah was on medications at the time. They were causing her to hear voices telling her to do this. Once they changed her medication, the voices went away. Sarah is doing better now and has undergone lots of mental health sessions. We are both grateful for Hero and Sirius’ quick thinking and to Guardian Angels Medical Service Dogs for the dogs.
While in class with his recipient, Tash, Major began alerting. She felt fine and didn’t understand why Major was alerting insistently. Tash knew to listen to him, so she decided to sit on the floor with him to try to figure out what had him so concerned. Once she got down to his level, she discovered a faint strange smell. Major pulled Tash over to a vent in the room where she discovered a noxious gas pouring into the room. It was soon discovered that a generator had malfunctioned and was causing toxic gas to pour into the classroom. The ninety-eight students were quickly evacuated. Without Major alerting that day, there may have been catastrophic consequences for those students.
A Tie!!
David shared his home with another veteran. At night they typically left their bedroom doors open, but this particular night, David had closed his door. During the night, Sasha woke him and was anxiously trying to get him to open the door. Thinking someone had broken into the house, David slowly opened the door only to find his roommate laying on the floor in a diabetic coma. He immediately called 911 and they saved his life thanks to Sasha.
As Linda was going up a concrete staircase with Grant at her side, her legs buckled causing her to fall backward, headfirst down the concrete steps. She grabbed for the handrail as she was going down, but missed it. Grant dashed to save her by stopping her fall, bracing himself under her head and neck. She was able to feel around for her cell phone and call 911. Grant held her there until EMS arrived. Linda’s injuries were not catastrophic. The doctor said if Grant had not stopped her fall, she could have broken her neck, suffered serious head trauma, or been killed.
Bob had multiple disabilities requiring he be in a wheelchair and on oxygen 24/7, and on dialysis every night. Because the machines disturbed Bob’s wife’s sleep, she slept in another room. On this particular night, Bob’s oxygen malfunctioned rendering him unconscious. Rather than sleeping comfortably the rest of the night next to Bob, Dixie realized there was a serious problem. Dixie immediately went to wake Bob’s wife insisting that she follow her to Bob’s room. Once his wife got to his room, Bob had already stopped breathing and had turned blue. She was able to get the oxygen back on and call 911. Bob spent a week in the hospital, but thanks to Dixie he lived for several more years.
While Bishop’s recipient was making breakfast, Bishop became highly excited barking and racing in circles just between the kitchen and bedroom. His recipient, Robert, finally walked out of the kitchen thinking there was a problem in his bedroom, however the moment he stepped out of the kitchen, the coffee pot exploded sending shards of glass and scalding coffee across the entire area where Robert had just been standing. Thanks to Bishop, Robert avoided potentially catastrophic injuries.
Named one of the top five service dogs in the United States by the American Kennel Club.
This wheelchair recipient was in peril to the point that Honey was unable to render aid. Desperate to help her recipient, without instruction she opened the sliding glass door, went to the next door neighbors house, and brought help back saving his life.
