There are a lot of good reasons to get your kids a puppy: Caring for a pet teaches responsibility, a puppy is a good companion, and they're just so darn cute. Now you can add one more reason to that list: If your toddler wanders away from home, the puppy just might save his life.
That's what happened to 2-year-old Nathaniel Teafatiller; he and his 4-month-old puppy, Stanley, slipped out of the family's rural Washington state home and wandered off into the woods. Nathaniel's dad woke up from a nap and found the front door open and his son and the dog missing.
"It was the worst feeling of my life," Nathaniel's mother, Ashley Teafatiller said. "As a mother, the worst things ran through my mind... he's out in the dark. What if an animal got him? What if he fell in a creek?"
Fortunately, none of those things happened. Searchers using heat-seeking devices found Nathaniel and Stanley huddled together some six hours after they first went missing. The boy, who was wearing only a shirt and pair of socks, was wet and scratched up but otherwise unharmed.
"A two-year-old in that area is dangerous... you've got cougars, coyotes, dogs that can pull a child down like that, which has happened before," said Lewis County Sheriff Steve Mansfield. The sheriff added that in this particular area, southeast of Chehalis, Wash., there are other dangers, like drowning in a creek or tumbling down a cliff.
It appears that Stanley was crucial to the rescue in two ways: He kept little Nathaniel warm in the cold temperatures, and his body heat was what attracted the search team's attention. Either way, this puppy is a hero. Mom Ashley Teafatiller agrees: "It's the most amazing thing I've ever seen."
Just goes to show, "animals, no matter how young, are so much more intune with life around them". Yeah, humans have the technology thing going on, but, cannot hold a stick to other life forms on this planet as far as just straight up living goes.
"Dogs, Humans Best Friend And Teacher",
1 comment:
I like this piece, good news and a cute picture to go along with it!
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