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Old August 8th, 2009, 03:40 PM
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Bailey_ Bailey_ is offline
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Has Your Pet Saved a Life?

Yesterday, my old landlord dropped by to give me a letter that had been sent twice to my old residence where I lived about four years ago now. She decided to finally just come over and drop it off as I only live about a block from my old place.

Of course I had no idea who the letter was from - there was no name in the return address.
But when I opened the letter and started skimming through it to find out who it was from, my throat closed over and I don't even know how I didn't ball my eyes out.

Before I was married and living on my own, I owned a Golden Retriever named Bosco.



We called him 'Golden Lashes', and he was such a wonderful companion. (We had to put him down last year, it was actually the reason I ended up finding pets.ca trying to get more information about osteoarthritis, but anyway, I digress.)

One Friday night around 2am in the morning I woke up to Bosco growling and facing my bedroom window. I couldn't see or hear anything when I peeked into the back alley, so I told him to go and lie down - to calm down - and settled back under the covers.
Again, a few minutes later, same thing. This time, the growling was much deeper and the hair on his neck was standing straight up.

When I looked out my window the second time, I saw them. A guy and a girl, talking back and forth - the girl walking away from the guy and the guy following her.
They started cursing, and things seemed to get heated. They walked out of my view at that point, but I stayed there - listening.

And that's when I heard her screaming, his threats, the banging (which I later found out was him throwing her body against a dumpster). I'll leave out the rest for sake of keeping this fairly PG, but you get the point.

Scared, totally unsure of what to do, I put Bosco on his leash, grabbed a kitchen knife (which police later told me was a TERRIBLE idea because chances are it would've been used on me), and called 911 on my cell phone as I headed out the door.
When I got to the entrance of the back alley, I could see their shapes...again, I won't go into details.

I screamed "DO YOU NEED HELP!?" to which she simply sobbed. Bosco was barking and lunging on his leash the entire time, and I managed in my grace to drop the knife as the man started running away.
Police arrived literally seconds later, and everything was swept out of my control.

The letter that I recieved in the mail yesterday was from the woman who had been attacked. Apparently the police couldn't ever give her my name to thank me, so she simply addressed the note to the 'Hero & Angel' that saved her life and sent it to the complex that she assumed we had come from.
In her letter she wrote how normally scared she was of dogs, but when she heard 'the dog' barking and coming towards her, she had never been so relieved to hear that sound in her life.

The part that broke my heart was knowing that she wanted to meet us both, Bosco included. She included her phone number and her name, and we had a long conversation last night - there was a lot of tears, especially when I told her that Bosco was no longer with us.

I can't really explain in words what it felt like to know how much we had meant to someone all this time, without even knowing who she was or what had really happened. All the police had ever told me was that I was stupid for leaving my house and that the woman would be okay. Sadly, the man was not found as he was of no relation to the woman. She had never seen him before in her life.

I wanted to share this regardless of the personal nature of this situation. I think it's so inspiring to know how greatly animals can effect our lives and others, even when we least expect it.

Has anyone ever had a similiar experience?
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Old August 8th, 2009, 03:43 PM
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mollywog mollywog is offline
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what a wonderful story Bailey. Both you and the late Bosco should be applauded for your bravery. Who knows what may have happened to this woman without you.
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Old August 8th, 2009, 03:46 PM
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Thanks MW. Bosco was the real hero though. Without him I never would've woke up...and I NEVER would've felt brave enough to venture out into the dark.

Her letter really made me miss him even moreso. I just wish they could stay with us forever!!
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Old August 8th, 2009, 05:06 PM
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Marcha Marcha is offline
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Bosco surely was a hero! And what a handsome one too!

My cat Twinkie saved my life from a fire. This was when I was living in Holland. I was living above a store, and the store was on fire. I was in the appartment above it, asleep and the cat woke me up by pouncing on me with all fours at once. There were small flames coming through the baseboards but large flames visible out back, coming from the shop's storage area; there was smoke. I grabbed her, went to the other side of the house which was still 'clear' of smoke, grabbed the phone and dialed the Dutch equivalent of 911, grabbed my coat and my partner's guitar, and left the house. Thanks to Twinks, I had time to do that. The store and inventory were a lost cause, but at least the building was saved, as was my life. It wouldn't have been more than a few minutes longer before the smoke would have gotten me unconscious while I was sleeping.
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Old August 9th, 2009, 11:18 AM
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Bailey_ Bailey_ is offline
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YIKES Marcha, that would've been horrible!! Glad your kitty woke you up. Do you still have Twinkie?

I'm meeting the woman tomorrow night for coffee. Can you say NERVOUS!?!?!
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Old August 9th, 2009, 01:54 PM
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Marcha Marcha is offline
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Bailey, no - Twinkie had to stay in Holland when I moved to the UK and then to Canada - and this all happened 17 years ago, in 1992. Twinkie stayed with my room mate and lived a long and happy life. I was her human for 8 years. The beauty of it was that I saved Twinkie's life- she was about to be drowned by an angry landlord when she was 3 weeks old (he didn't allow cats, let alone litters, in his buildings). I took her and her littermates home, and kept Twinkie after the kittens had grown into healthy young cats and went to their new homes.

How exciting that you'll meet the woman tomorrow! Let us know how it goes?
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