Dogs are fiercely loyal. And sometimes, that loyalty leads them to become heroes. That’s how Jacques, a white Scottish Terrier, ended up saving the life of his sister Annabelle, also a white Scottish Terrier.
The night started out with a separate tragic ordeal.
Jacques and Annabelle’s owner had a medical issue that emergency responders attended to. Both dogs ran off during the commotion, sending Orange Massachusetts Police Officer Chris Bisceglia to chase after them.
He was, luckily, able to find Jacques.
But Annabelle was still missing.
That’s when Jacques got all Lassie on everybody and lead Bisceglia straight to Annabelle, his lifelong buddy.
Bisceglia followed Jacques’ trail of barks all the way to Annabelle, who had fallen down 30-feet into an “icy and swampy” embankment.
“He’d bark. He’d come toward me and then he’d run away. And he continued to do this,” Bisceglia CBS Boston.
“I got close enough and I ended up hearing the female terrier was down the embankment stuck on a downed tree and she was trapped surrounded by water. And it was all ice, a steep embankment so she couldn’t get back up.”
Posted by Orange Ma Police Department onTuesday, January 5, 2016
Bisceglia was impressed that the little dog was able to get help for his friend.
“I was amazed,” he told ABC News. “This little terrier was smarter than me. If it weren’t for him, his little friend probably wouldn’t have survived the night. It was really cold that day. The temperature was in the single digits.”
Posted by Orange Ma Police Department onTuesday, January 5, 2016
Animal Control Officer Jennifer Arsenault, however, said she wasn’t surprised at all knowing the behavior of dogs.
“Especially dogs that have been together for a long time, they become very bonded with each other and they’re very intelligent,” she said. “People don’t give dogs half the credit they deserve.”
Once Annabelle was located, Bisceglia called the fire department to bring down a ladder to safely get her out of the embankment.
Annabelle was then taken to a local veterinarian to be treated for some small cuts on her ears.
After that, both Jacques and Annabelle stayed with the North Quabbin Regional Animal Control until their owner was released from the hospital.
This morning, a resident of Orange had a medical condition and needed to be transported to the hospital. Her two terrier…
Posted by Orange Ma Police Department onTuesday, January 5, 2016
“Apparently, any dog in the right circumstance can turn into ‘Lassie’! Nice work by all involved,” the Orange Police Department wrote on Facebook.
Their Facebook post ended up going viral. More than 20,000 people liked it while 1,600 commented on it. It was shared more than 5,000 times.
“This was so AWESOME. What a great dog. And smart too! Thank you Police and Fire people way to go, made me smile,” wrote one commenter.
“The ‘key’ here was not only the K9’s ability to COMMUNICATE to a human, here, a Police Officer, but that officer’s ability to ‘READ’ and understand (Thanks to ‘Lassie’ movies!),” said another. “But MORE IMPORTANTLY to ACT on the ‘message’ the dog brought to him! In over 50 years of working with dogs I have found MANY of them are SMARTER than most people! Great job Officer! Thanks!”
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