I love dogs. I believe that they are the most loving, loyal, devoted of souls and make the most wonderful companions, bar none. So when one reads about a dog-human relationship that culminated in a reunion ten years after parting, the real dog lover knows that this can indeed happen. The world is full of such heartwarming dog stories!
Abby was a two-year-old lab when she went missing. It was her microchip that led her back home! The family had thought that Abby had died, however, when they were reunited with their dog, thanks to the man who found her, the police and rescue team, it was like a part of the family was back!
Yolanda was looking after a terrier – provisionally named RayLee – for a few days. The little dog saved the life of her son, Christian, a child with Down Syndrome who was having a violent seizure. The little dog alerted the mother about the child’s distress; without which, according to the doctors, the child would have choked on his own blood!
Jon Tumilson was a Navy Seal who was killed in Afghanistan in a chopper crash. His Labrador Retriever Hawkeye attended the funeral service and was clearly devastated. The story is not all sad. Hawkeye was willed to the Navy Seal’s friend Scott Nichols who looked after him after his friend's passing.
Capitan ran away when his master Miguel Guzman died in 2006. When the family visited the grave a week later, they found Capitan sleeping next to his master’s grave. For 6 years after Guzman died, Capitan continued to come to the grave every evening at 6 PM and slept there every night.
This story of canine loyalty has become the stuff of legends and the statue erected in the dog’s honour is now a tourist attraction! Fido would wait every day for his master Borgo San Lorenzo to return. One day in 1943, Lorenzo was killed in a World War II air raid and did not return. However, Fido continued to wait for his master each evening for the next 14 years until he died in 1958.
Another doggie legend was 'Bobbie-the wonder dog' who caught the world's attention during the 1920s. He was lost when he went along with his owners to visit their relatives in Wolcott Indiana. His owners searched for him but returned home heartbroken when they could not find him. He managed to travel about 3000 miles to return to his own family in Silverton, Oregon. Bobbie returned home after 6 months; thin, mangy, filthy; obviously having walked the entire way, crossed rivers and borne a cold winter. Bobbie even had a film made after his life.
Another dog who became a legend was Swansea Jack. Between the years, 1930-37, this famous Welsh dog had saved as many as 27 people from the docks and river banks of Swansea. He lived near the dock with his master and always responded to cries for help. He would dive into the water to save any drowning person and would pull them to safety.
Waghya was a constant and devoted companion to his king. So much so that when Shivaji died, legend has it that the dog jumped into the funeral pyre with him! A statue was built in memory of the dog later.
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