Dog Dials 911 on Cellphone and Saves Owner’s Life!

Now I gotta tell you, I’m so impressed with this little Beagle named Belle.  Of course, I think all dogs are great, but this one has really made me proud.  Now, I don’t normally buy gifts for dogs, but in this case, I’ll have to make an exception.

Most dogs are able to run and get help, drag an owner to safety or something heroic like that, but I’ve never heard of a dog being able to make a phone call!  But, that’s exactly what she did.

Seeing her owner Kevin Weaver of Indianapolis, IN lying unconscious on the kitchen floor from a diabetic seizure, she immediately fetched the cellphone and bit down on the number 9.  It had been pre-programmed to call emergency services. Belle repeatedly barked into the phone at the emergency dispatchers, who immediately sent help. When paramedics arrived, they found that Weaver had suffered severe hypoglycemic shock and had collapsed on the floor.  As they rushed him to the hospital, Belle rode along in the ambulance to make sure her “patient” would be okay.

How’d she get so smart?

It seems that Weaver has had type 1 diabetes most of his life, but when the seizures became more frequent a year ago, he enlisted the aid of his faithful friend, Belle, and trained her to become a diabetes alert dog.  It took about nine months, but as you can see, the specialized training paid off.

Impressive?  But that’s not all!

As if being one of the first dogs to actually dial a cell phone in an emergency wasn’t impressive enough, she can also help monitor Weaver’s blood-sugar levels.  With a keen sense of smell, she is able to detect when levels are abnormal.  The dog periodically licks Weaver’s nose to take her own reading of his blood-sugar level.  If something seems off to her, she will paw and whine at him.

“Every time she paws at me like that I grab my meter and test myself,” Weaver said. “She’s never been wrong.”

Every good dog has its day!

Her good deeds haven’t gone unnoticed. She is the first non-human to receive the VITA Wireless Samaritan Award. The Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association awards the VITA award to individuals who “demonstrate the courage and instinct to think of their wireless phones as a life-saving device during demanding emergency situations.” The name VITA (which is Latin for “Life”) is so appropriate since that’s what she gave her owner a second chance at.

~Max