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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.
