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.
In September of 2021, Foxy and I ended a normal day and we’re getting ready for bed. I took my meds, including the medication I was prescribed to help me get into deeper REM sleep. I had been devoid of this deep sleep for a few days and really needed that elusive rest.
What seemed like a short time later, I had entered that much-needed REM stage when I had a sensation as if someone was administering CPR along with a brushing of something on my face. Dazed and disoriented, I began to realize Foxy was on my chest jumping up and down repeatedly and licking my face anxiously. As I became more coherent, I faintly recognized a noise and realized it was a fire alarm and Foxy was working for all she was worth to get me up.
Reality raced through my head, I jumped up, grabbed Foxy’s vest and we quickly headed for safety. As we stepped outside, people were everywhere yelling to get out of the building. Firetrucks were all over the area. And then I saw it – the unmistakable bright orange glow of a large fire blazing in one of the apartment windows.
With the impact of my deep sleep my medication, I never heard the alarms and sirens. Foxy knew that there was something wrong and worked hard to get me up and out of the building to safety. My Foxy girl was already an amazing service dog that had saved my life due to my medical issues. Who knew she would save me from what could have been a deadly situation she was never trained to respond to.
Victor saved the life of his Recipient, Don when Don suddenly suffered a heart attack. He writes:
Recently, I experienced a severe heart attack. The night before, Victor began to pay very close attention to me. He clearly knew something was wrong with me, but I had no idea what he was trying to alert me to. My wife Sharon & my boys even commented on Victor‘s behavior. The next morning, it hit. Victor was at my side & stayed with me while I was laying on the floor. He helped me to get up off the floor and get upstairs to seek the assistance of my wife. She’s a nurse and knew immediately that I was having a heart attack. We went to the ER where the Dr’s immediately began working on me. I am lucky to have Victor. I love him and he clearly is a very special dog.
Juice saved the life of a suicidal stranger by insistently bringing his recipient to a young man, who was hiding razor blades he’d put in his pockets to take his life. A former police officer, Ken knew this young man was in trouble. The juice spent several minutes licking the teenager and letting him pet her. As he began petting Juice, he revealed he had concealed the razor blades, and eventually handed them to Ken. The next day, Ken received a call telling him that the young man told the crisis center “had it not been for Juice, I would have killed myself yesterday”.
Today, the young man is recovering, and getting the help he needs.
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!!
Both of these dogs were named heroes for 2017, as both of them stopped suicidal idealizations in their recipients. In both cases, their recipient had drawn a gun, pointed it at themselves and the dogs successfully knocked the guns from their hands, bringing them back to the here and now, saving their lives.
A Tie!!
Both of these dogs were named heroes for 2017, as both of them stopped suicidal idealizations in their recipients. In both cases, their recipient had drawn a gun, pointed it at themselves and the dogs successfully knocked the guns from their hands, bringing them back to the here and now, saving their lives.
While out walking in his yard, Turbo dashed in front of his recipient, Mike, knocking him out of the way as a rattlesnake struck out. Thanks to Turbo’s quick action, his recipient was saved from a fatal rattlesnake bite, but sadly Turbo sacrificed his life for his beloved recipient. His amazing young life was cut short, but his bravery will never be forgotten.
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.
