"I Don’t Disregard My Dog's Body Language." People Are Sharing The Moments When Their Pets Rescued Them From A Dangerous Situation
The way a pet cares for their human is a love that's totally unmatched. It's amazing how smart and intuitive they can be in the face of worry or danger, and protecting their family is always key.
So, I asked the pet owners of the BuzzFeed Community to tell me about a time when their pet saved them from a dangerous situation, and people were thrilled to spotlight their fur babies. Here's what they had to say:
Content warning: This post contains some descriptions of domestic violence and assault.
1."My 16-pound super mutt is very inquisitive and aware of his surroundings. We were on vacation in Florida over Christmas, and I took him on his last walk for the night. We were walking by an area with brush, and it was dark when he suddenly stopped. He always has to be first and can’t ever be last, so this piqued my interest."
"All of a sudden, he was standing and staring into the brush when he moved directly in front of me and started growling in that direction. I started walking backwards and pulling on him to come on, but he wouldn’t budge. I heard some shuffling in the bushes, and I was done. I called his name and started walking super fast, and he finally snapped out of it and walked behind me. I turned around and saw a bear dart across the road. I noped the eff out, picked up my little dog, and ran. I don’t disregard my dog's body language because they can sense and hear things we can’t!"
—Anonymous
2."This happened between the 1950s and 1960s. My great-grandparents lived in the countryside and didn't have neighbors close by. However, my great-grandma owned two Norwegian forest cat mixes that were huge! A burglar broke into the house when my great-grandma was alone during the day."
"He threatened her with something (I can't remember whether it was a knife or a gun) to make her sit down and not call the police. When the burglar started to ransack the house, one of the 20+-pound cats, who had been lying on the mantelpiece, leapt on his face and clawed at him like it was possessed. My great-grandma was able to run to a different room, lock the door, and call the police. They arrested the burglar. Both cats and my great-grandma were fine. The cats lived to be very old and were both extremely chunky."
3."My now-seven-year-old Golden Labrador was not yet one year old and in a service dog training program at the time. We were walking on a trail near our house when a man came out of the wooded area along the trail. We clearly startled him, and he startled us. As my dog started growling, the man pulled out a knife. I'm not a flight or fight responder; instead, I froze."
"My pup put himself between the man and myself, barking, growling, hackles up, and snapping at this man as he came closer to us. When the man stumbled, my dog took the opportunity and began dragging my still frozen-in-place ass down the trail and away from the situation. Because of this incident, he failed the service program, and we got the opportunity to adopt him. I have no idea what would or could have happened, but every day I'm grateful to have him in my life. His program labeled him a fabulous flunkie, and we're not sorry!"
—Anonymous
4."I caught a rare strain of pneumonia that left my lungs to shit permanently. Long story short, my alveoli are so inflamed that oxygen is too thick to pass through. So any irritants stop my breathing because it all swells up. One time, my mom cooked something I’m deathly allergic to without warning. My lungs stopped breathing for me, and I was lying upstairs unconscious for who knows how long."
"My dog isn’t a service dog. He was apparently crying and clawing at my door for a while. When someone finally heard and let him in, he pounced on my chest so hard that it started my heart back up. That’s my Drogo. I don’t deserve him one bit. He wouldn’t let my family near me after because he was distraught with them for their neglect, but he was super friendly to the paramedics and gave them all licks. He kissed me on my way out the door on the gurney and danced when I video called him from the hospital. Since then, he has loved meeting paramedics and firefighters. My Drogo <3."
5."One day there was a man walking down our road. My very sweet and gentle-tempered dog saw him and started growling and barking. This caught me off guard because it was unusual for my dog to react that way. I did a double take at the person and realized I recognized him from a picture on the news."
"The police had been searching for him because he had killed his wife. We called the cops, and we reported it. The cops picked him up on the next street over. If my dog hadn't barked, I may not have paid any attention to someone walking down the street. The sad thing is that not long after that, our other dog ended up getting sick and dying. I always wondered if someone poisoned our dog because they were mad that we turned that guy in..."
6."Not danger necessarily, but one time I was tired and taking a bath, and my cat had been hanging out in the bathroom with me. I laid my head over and started to doze off. My cat bit my ponytail and started pulling my head back up. It’s like he knew the risk that if I fell asleep fully, my head could fall into the water and I’d drown."
—Anonymous
7."During my senior year of high school, I was cramming for my exams on my bed with all my books laid out. Our dog almost always slept with me, but for some reason I didn’t want to clear the books off the bed, so I sent her to sleep with my sister. In the middle of the night, the dog goes into my parents' room and wakes up my mom."
"My mom, assuming she just needed to go pee, started heading downstairs with her and walked past my sister's room, where she could smell smoke. It turns out my sister's bedside fan had stopped turning and started smoking. My mom was able to get the fan taken care of quickly. If my dog hadn’t been sleeping with my sister that night, the fan [smoke] could have engulfed the room."
8."I was walking with my dog on a trail by myself in a pretty deserted area at the time, and there was a man heading my way. The man was smiling at me and saying 'hi' as he got closer. There was something off in my gut. I was getting really anxious too when I was getting closer to the guy, and I felt a bad feeling like something could've happened."
"When we were getting closer, my dog, a basset hound who looks pretty docile and is usually good at walking by strangers, growled at this guy and sort of lunged towards him in a really threatening way. He was on a leash, and he genuinely surprised me. The man jumped back, looked spooked, and hurried off. I don't know what his intentions were or anything, but I'm really glad my dog was with me that day because I was kind of scared after that because my basset really doesn't react that way to humans when we're out walking, and it just left a bad taste in my mouth."
9."I was about 10 when my mom and I came home really late. We lived in a mobile home park, and our yard was right next to the levee. We pulled around to where we would see our front porch before parking in the driveway. Our black cat was sitting at the bottom of the steps, covered in blood. We approached him and saw blood running down from the window, and our other cat was sitting in said window."
"After talking to the police, we learned that a guy had tried to break in by putting his arm through the small opening to remove the stick from the window track. The cat jumped him and tore him up so badly that he went to the hospital. It turns out the guy was also a wanted rapist and was planning on waiting for my mom and me to get home. Willie was an amazing cat, and I miss him every day."
10."My now-husband and I were on the way to a friend's house for dinner and drinks, and our dogs all got along, so we brought our two rescue pups with us. We stopped at the store for my husband to run in and grab beer, and I stayed in the passenger seat in the running car with the dogs. About a minute after he went in, he came back to the driver's side door. I assumed he'd forgotten his wallet. This was in the winter, so it was dark out, but as I leaned over to unlock his door, I realized it was NOT my husband."
"I recoiled, and my dogs immediately sensed something was wrong and went WILD. They had been lying quietly in the backseat, so I don't think this guy had seen them until they went berserk. He backed up, turned around, and walked through the rest of the parking lot AND CROSSED THE STREET. So it's not like he just tried to get in the wrong Civic (understandable, there's like a billion); he was definitely planning to do something nefarious if I'd opened that door or if my dogs hadn't been there to scare him off. They're still on edge anytime someone approaches the car with me, but I do not mind; I'm grateful."
11."Not me, but my uncle. He was diabetic, and one day he’s sitting in the living room, and his cat will not leave him alone and keeps going into the kitchen and meowing. He knew the cat had just been fed and had water, so he ignored him. He eventually got up to see what the cat wanted, and it was just standing there."
"He went back and sat down, but the cat would not stop trying to get him to go into the kitchen. Eventually he goes back in there and, on a whim, decides to check his blood sugar (his testing supplies were in the kitchen). It was dangerously low. He ate a snack; his blood sugar came back up, and the cat left him alone the rest of the day."
12."I was 11 years old and living in a farming community. One day I came back from school, and our Cocker Spaniel, who was usually very loving, snarled and barked at me, not letting me get close to the front steps. When I was able to see behind my snarling dog, I could see under the steps the biggest viper I have ever seen. By not letting me get close to the steps, my Lucy saved me from getting a snake bite."
—Anonymous
13."Not me, but my dad. He's been diagnosed with cancer twice as a result of his cats (two different cats, years apart) making a huge fuss. The first time, it was our pet tom cat who kept insisting on making constant biscuits over my dad's bladder. He told our doctor, expecting him to laugh it off, but the doctor immediately sent him for a barrage of tests."
"All the tests showed was a minor bladder complaint that needed a small overnight surgery... until they opened him up and found cancer. Another surgery later, and he's been in remission for 20 years. The second time, bearing in mind that this was 15+ years later in another country, my father's feral rescue, which is normally an asshat to everyone but him, became obsessed with my dad's nose. She would lick at it, and one day she suddenly bit him. When he went to the doctor to get the bite cleaned and checked out, the doctor referred him to a dermatologist, who informed him that he had a very smart cat who had tried to remove a patch of skin cancer. He had a successful surgery, and the asshat cat revels in permanent glory for saving Daddy's nose. Trust those pet instincts, people!"
—Anonymous
14."I was in a very toxic relationship for six years, but it didn’t turn that way until we moved away from our hometown together to chase bigger dreams. After about a month of us being away from almost everyone we knew, he started abusing me physically, mentally, and emotionally. We had two dogs, one of which I had adopted prior to the relationship, and he was very much my dog."
"He would constantly put himself between my boyfriend when he could tell something was going to happen or start bugging for walks when my boyfriend would come home late after drinking. One night, I was cooking, and the dogs were asleep on the couch when he came home drunk. I poked at him for answers as to why he had been missing for hours, and I was immediately met with a beating of a lifetime. At one point, I remember thinking to myself that I was going to die on that kitchen tile floor. Then, it just stopped. I laid there for a second, grateful it had come to an end, before turning over and seeing my 6’4 200-pound boyfriend being literally dragged away by the back of the neck by my 80-pound dog. I stayed for much longer than I’m proud to admit, but I did finally get out of that relationship and took my beautiful dog with me. He lived a very beautiful and peaceful life until his passing in December 2023. I owed that dog everything and will never be able to move on from what an absolute perfect dream he was."
—Anonymous
And finally, here's a long one that's well worth the read because it will actually make your heart burst from the beautiful amount of love being displayed:
15.The neighborhood stray saved my life. We had just moved in about four months ago, and he greeted us on moving day. It was summer in Texas, so my husband started giving him food and water, and although we couldn’t let him in because of our no-pet lease, we were soon added to his rotating roster of caretakers. That said, he hung out on our porch so much that people began to think he was our dog. Eventually, I took him to a vet to find out if he was chipped and, if so, find his owners. I found out he was chipped; the owners lived on the same street a few blocks down, and his name was Chucho."
"I tried to take him to his family; he wouldn’t go. They tried to pick him up, but he wouldn’t go. So we agreed our family would just kind of look after him and be his main unofficial foster humans. Fast forward about two months — he would follow anyone on foot, and when I set out on a walk one day, he tagged along. I had actually convinced my son to go with us on his bike. Now we lived on a dead-end street, so by the time we got to the T-intersection, a pack of dogs on a corner lot were all riled up. My son refused to continue and turned back home, despite my assurances that they were safely behind their fence. Chucho and I confidently went on. However, as we were coming back, the dogs were still barking at me specifically and aggressively. Before I knew it, one had gotten through a hole in the fence, and then another, and then the third. Three pit bulls. I didn’t know at the time how to fend off a pack attack, and apparently making prolonged eye contact is not it. Well, they attacked, and I was stupidly wearing my husband’s too-big-for-me Crocs, so I fell. Obviously, this is not a good position to be in. Luckily for me, my walking companion was running interference and trying to pull them away from me by their tails until a neighbor finally came to help with HIS pit bull after what seemed like an eternity of me screaming for help. This is the sweetest, most gentle dog ever, and I have no idea how his fight kicked in, but thank God it did because I had NO flight. So now I’m the only human at the bottom of a five-dog pile, with another neighbor on his porch pointing his rifle at us and trying to figure out which dog to shoot. Miraculously, only one dog made actual contact, and even that was his tooth just grazing my thumb — not so much as a scratch. The first neighbor shooed the attackers back into their fence and helped me up. The sniper asked if I was okay or if he needed to handle the dogs. I said I was fine; don’t shoot. Thank goodness my son had more sense than I did to turn back. I called it in to the city, but the owners somehow managed to keep the dogs from being taken in. As fate would have it, exactly a week later, I was pulling into my driveway just as an unmarked van was closing its doors. I had a bad feeling Chucho was in there, and I managed to stop the driver before they took off. Sure enough, I got the story that the pitbull dogs got out again and attacked my next-door neighbors — a pregnant wife and her toddler. Chucho was walking with them too, and he also saved their lives. They also escaped without a scratch, but this time he suffered a small injury to one foot. Because he was involved in the fight but untagged and injured (I had just bought him one, but he was afraid of collars, so I didn’t get a chance to put it on him), he got taken in with the attackers. I went to the shelter the next day to adopt him. His owners waived the right to claim him, but I had to wait the required 5 days to be able to officially adopt him. I also had to be prepared to take him as soon as the shelter called, or he would have been put down. Meanwhile, my husband asked the landlord if we could please keep Chucho, and he agreed as long as we paid pet rent! Because Chucho was diagnosed with heartworms, I got to take him for free as long as I agreed to keep him on medication for life. He saved my life. It was the least I could do, and I’m so glad I did. He’s sleeping next to me right now and hardly ever leaves my side. Best dog ever!"
—Anonymous
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
Have a story you want to tell about your life-saving pet? Let me know in the comments!
