A pet dog is being celebrated for his heroic act in saving the life of a baby. The pooch alerted the parents of the child when the little girl stopped breathing and was turning blue.
Discover our latest podcast
Belligerent and unusual
Recounting the event which took place on Monday night, Kelly Dowling said she had put her 9-month-old daughter down in her crib to sleep. She explained that the little girl had been battling a cold and had not been feeling too well at the time.
Dowling said shortly after putting the baby to sleep, the family’s 8-year-old Boston terrier, Henry, kept barging into the sleeping baby’s nursery and waking her up. She said she soon started getting fed up by this strange behaviour.
He was not acting like himself, he kept going back in. It seemed very belligerent and unusual for him.
She added that Henry would normally get embarrassed when scolded, but not that night. It was around that time that Dowling noticed something was off with her daughter, who had stopped breathing.
She started turning blue and just really choking on, you know, whatever it was stuck in there.
'We don’t deserve dogs'
Deeply disturbed, the parents of the little girl rushed her to the hospital, where doctors were able to clear the build-up in her throat before things got worse.
In a tweet detailing her ordeal, Dowling said she shuddered to think about what could have happened if the dog hadn’t alerted them.
I don't know what would have happened if he hadn't woken her. We don't deserve dogs.
For saving the day, Henry has been receiving extra special treatment from his human family. Dowling said his Christmas stocking will be filled to the brim this year to say thank you for saving her daughter’s life.
We give him a stocking every year for Christmas and I'm going to have to refill the stocking before Christmas (this year), because he's gotten all of his toys early