Guardian Angels of the Four-Legged Kind

In the emotional, political and financial upheaval of a world that seems to be going backwards by day, pets are more than ever the main constant to ordinary people.

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As time goes on, dogs as man’s best friend could be rewritten to read “Dogs are man’s only friend”. In the daily grind of news that only makes you worry or leaves you more depressed, comes a story out of Boston about a dog who saved her owner who was badly injured in a car crash just days before Thanksgiving. “John Miles was walking his dog Lucy on Neponset Street in Dorchester, as he does every day, when both of them were hit by a car. (CBS, Dec. 12, 2013).

“John blacked out and doesn’t remember what happened. Lucy, a husky-beagle mix, who was also injured, limped to a nearby dentist’s office and barked until help arrived. She limped back and stayed by John’s side until emergency crews arrived.

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“John had no identification on him, so first responders used Lucy’s ID tags to determine who they were. “What I’m being told is she sat there and was crying and everything else, you know because I couldn’t get up,” John says. “That’s the type of dog she is.” John suffered major injuries that required him to undergo surgery. His injuries included two broken legs, a broken arm and 15 facial fractures. Even as Lucy was limping around with a torn ACL and leg fractures and had to undergo surgery, the pain causing her biggest hurt is missing John. “We found out that beagles actually cry, they have tear ducts,” said Caitlan Miles, John’s daughter. “So after the accident, when I was home with her, she had tears running down her fur. She is walking around lost without him.” The unconditional love and loyalty of dogs in real life trump anything marketed on the Hollywood screen. Dogs fought side by side with the soldiers of World War 1 and World War II, and to this day follow soldiers protecting freedom in danger zones like Afghanistan and Iraq. In fact, one of the most heroic dogs in the theatre of war, during the Second World War, a Yorkie called Smoky, weighed only four pounds. Smoky, also known as ‘Yorkie Doodle Dandy’, flew combat missions, ran telegraph wires through 70-ft. long pipe and could neatly it into a soldier’s helmet. In times of peace, dogs like Greyfriars Bobby, a sky terrier, who lay on his owner’s grave through the bitter cold of winter, refusing to leave for 14 years, touched the hearts of millions. Bobby has his own monument in Edinburgh, Scotland. Dog as Man’s Best Friend has always been there, but since the advent of the World Wide Web, we can now all read about the courageous role they play in the lives of so many humans. In Russia, commuter dogs travel from the suburbs into Moscow and back for their daily food through scavenging. In Chile and other countries, dogs have been seen-and videotaped--risking their lives by crossing highways to pull injured and dying dogs onto the roadside after being hit by cars. In frigid Boston, John Miles is waiting out the winter and for the recovery of both himself and Lucy so that he can get back to their daily walks again. A fund has been set up to help pay for the cost of Lucy’s care. Talk show radio host Mark Levin, whose book Saving Sprite, was a runaway bestseller, sponsors the Pepsi, Griffen, and Sprite’s Legacy Gift, an ongoing fund to provide hope to dogs who might not otherwise have a chance at a new life-particularly older dogs and dogs with special needs. Meanwhile, dogs are more than ever a constant in an increasingly hostile and painful world. It is little wonder that d-o-g spelled backwards is G-o-d.

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