On the brink of death with all hope lost...until their saving grace appears.
Here we present to you 8 amazing stories of animals saving humans from certain death.
What these creatures are capable of is unreal!
Number 8: The
Dolphin Pod Dolphins: some of the most altruistic creatures
on this planet.
When they see an animal or human in distress they react the same way they would if one
of their own was in danger.
They work together to protect them and get them to safety.
One such instance occurred in 2013 in Carrickalinga, Australia.
Lynn Gitsham was walking her dogs on the beach when Ramsay—her Cocker Spaniel—began chasing
a flock of seagulls into the ocean.
The tide was strong and pulled Ramsey away from the beach.
He struggled against the current to swim back, but the pooch was no match for the strength
of Mother Nature.
All Gitsham could do was walk along the rocky shoreline and call helplessly for him...until
she slipped on the wet rocks and fell into the water.
She fought with all her strength to swim back to shore, but the current would not let her
go.
Her situation escalated from bad to worse when she spotted fins swimming around her.
She waited for sharp teeth to clamp down and pull her to her death.
But instead of feeling the razor sharp teeth of a shark, she felt the slippery nose of
a dolphin; a whole pod in fact.
The dolphins grouped together and escorted Gitsham and her dog back to shore before swimming
back out to sea.
Number 7: Mandy and Mandy Our next heroic feat was actually a team effort:
a man who was saved by not just one, but two of his own animals; his dog Mandy and his
goat, also named Mandy. 78-year-old Australian farmer Noel Osborne
slipped in cow manure on his farm and broke his hip.
He laid there unable to move for five days in the blistering hot sun, cold bitter nights,
and even during a thunderstorm.
The only reason he survived is thanks to his dog Mandy—who slept with him at night to
keep him warm—and his goat Mandy, who provided him with her milk to keep him hydrated.
Five days later some friends stopped by and finally found Noel.
They called an ambulance and he was rushed to the hospital, where he made a full recovery.
Noel swears that the goat's milk & the dog's warmth is the reason he's still alive.
Number 6: Peanut the Mutt They say dogs are man’s best friend but
when it comes down to it do they really care?
You be the judge.
In 2016, a 1-year-old mutt named Peanut was found in Escanaba, Michigan neglected with
two broken legs.
After a few months of recuperation, she was adopted by a couple.
What the family didn’t know was that Peanut would become a local hero.
One cold morning, Peanut was running up and down the stairs of her new home barking wildly.
The wife thought she was crazy and ignored her.
Peanut then proceeded to the husband who was working in the garage.
The husband followed her through a field behind their house, where Peanut pointed out a 3-year-old
girl laying in the grass, naked and shivering.
The husband called for an ambulance and the girl was rushed to a hospital.
But who was she and where did she come from?
As it turns out, she did not live far from where Peanut found her.
The police went to the house and found it in disrepair.
While searching the premises, they made a shocking discovery: there was yet another
girl there living in the squalor conditions.
Both girls were taken and placed in Child Protective Services.
It is unknown who the parents were or what consequences they faced.
Number 5: Gracie – a Cat in a Coal Mine It’s a known fact that animals can sense
subtle changes in their surroundings long before humans can.
But whether they choose to warn us about it is another matter.
In the early hours of February 4th, 2017, Annette Shanahan woke up feeling ill and light-headed.
She got out of bed and only made it a few feet before collapsing into a chair.
Unbeknownst to Annette, she was suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Her husband, Kevin, would have continued to sleep and likely both would have succumbed
if it were not for the family cat, Gracie.
Kevin was woken by a furious pounding on the bedroom door.
He got out of bed ready to yell at the cat when he saw Annette in the chair.
He realized something was wrong and called 911.
After investigating the house, firefighters discovered lethal levels of carbon monoxide.
Like a canary in a coal mine, carbon monoxide affects cats much faster than humans.
When Gracie sensed something was wrong, she alerted her owners or perhaps was looking
for a source of fresh air.
Either way, if it weren’t for Gracie, Annette and Kevin would surely have suffocated in
their sleep.
Number 4: Willie the Parrot 2006 – Denver, Colorado: Meagan and Samantha
were both college students sharing an apartment.
Samantha had a 2-year-old daughter who Meagan would watch when Samantha had classes, and
Meagan had a pet parrot named Willie.
One day while Samantha was at class, Meagan placed the baby in front of the tv while she
went to the kitchen to make a Pop-Tart.
When the pastry was finished, she placed it on the table and quickly slipped away to the
bathroom, thinking that the TV would hold the child’s attention until she got back.
But while she was gone, she heard Willie squawking, “Mama!
Baby!
Mama!
Baby!”
Meagan came running out of the bathroom to discover that the child’s face and lips
had turned blue.
The child was choking on the Pop-Tart.
Thinking on her feet, Meagan grabbed the child and performed the Heimlich maneuver until
she spit up the Pop-Tart.
The strangest part is that while Willie knew the word “mama,” she had never never combined
it with the word “baby.”
This leads some to believe that parrots aren’t just mindlessly repeating words they hear
after all, and that when faced with an emergency they know how to string words together to
form a coherent message.
Number 3: The Thanksgiving Day Fire 4:47 a.m.
Thanksgiving Day: the San Mateo Fire Department receives a call regarding a garage fire.
By the time firefighters arrived the fire had engulfed the garage and spread to the
neighbor’s house.
The couple and neighbor had all made it outside and were safe.
But the couple—whose house was ablaze—told firefighters there was one more member of
the family still trapped inside the inferno: the family cat.
Firefighters knew that the chances of the cat’s survival were slim.
They entered the house to put out the fire and to their amazement found the cat, singed
but still alive.
The owner’s boyfriend explained to authorities that the cat had woken him up by meowing incessantly.
He thought someone was trying to break into their home.
But when he realized what was happening, he and his girlfriend escaped.
The cat, who was credited with saving three human lives, was taken to an emergency veterinarian
clinic where it is believed to have made a full recovery.
Number 2: Lulu the Pot-Bellied Pig No list of amazing animal saves is complete
without the infamous story of Lulu the pot-bellied pig.
In 1998, Lulu’s owner Jo Ann collapsed on the floor of her home and screamed for help,
but no one could hear her cries.
That is, except, for Lulu.
Lulu realized something was wrong and forced her way out of the fenced-in yard.
In her attempt to get out, she was wounded and began bleeding.
She wandered into the nearby road and laid down, playing dead until a car stopped.
The driver got out to see what was wrong when Lulu got up and led him back to the house.
The driver found Jo Ann on the floor and called 911.
Doctors say that if the driver had showed up fifteen minutes later, Jo Ann would have
died.
Lulu received the Tiffany gold hero’s medal from the American Society for the Prevention
of Cruelty to Animals and made appearances on Oprah and The Late Show with David Letterman.
Number 1: Pig Organs Although this is technically a future animal
save, it still deserves the number one spot, and you will soon understand why.
Every month, more than 2,000 new names are added to the national waiting list for organ
transplants, which has over 120,000 patients according to the Department of Health and
Human Services.
The average waiting period is 7 years for a new kidney, but most patients will die before
they can receive one.
The biggest problem facing people waiting for organs is the lack of donors.
About 22 people die every day while waiting for an organ transplant in the United States
which has led to a burgeoning black market in Europe and Asia.
Smithfield Foods believes that there will be more than enough organs for everyone someday.
But where will all these organs come from?
Pigs.
Pig and human organs are very similar and could potentially be used to transplant into
human hosts.
Pig-to-human transplants are still a long ways away, but recent advances are making
what was once thought to be impossible into a reality.
The biggest obstacle facing pig-to-human transplants is organ rejection due to viruses or genetic
differences.
George Church, founder of eGenesis Bio and a professor at Harvard Medical School, thinks
he has solved that problem.
With a ground-breaking technique known as gene-editing, he can trim away the genetic
materials of pig organ viruses.
Potentially a dozen different organs could be harvested from one pig.
The effects would be astronomical!
All demand for organs could come to a complete halt, thus completely obliterating the black
market and the exploitation of poor people in third world countries.
The first clinical trials of pig-to human-transplants may occur as early as 2017.