We often hear stories about the intuition of dogs, but a recent event in Pittsburgh serves as a powerful reminder that our four-legged friends are capable of complex, life-saving communication. In this case, a pit bull didn't just bark for help; he actively recruited a stranger to save his owners' lives.
The incident unfolded when Gary Thynes was in a local park with his own dog. He noticed a pit bull acting frantically, clearly in distress but hesitant to approach. Thynes, sensing something was wrong, decided to engage rather than walk away.
"I’m really glad that he did what he did," Thynes told local station WTAE-TV. "He definitely got my attention…He’d come just close enough for me to be out of arm’s reach. Then he would bark, turn around, run a few steps, turn around, bark again. It felt like he was trying to get my attention. I got this overwhelming feeling that he wanted me to follow him."
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Thynes trusted that feeling. He handed his own dog off to a friend and followed the pit bull away from the street and toward a secluded tent encampment. What he found there was terrifying.
The dog led him to a red couch where a man was lying unresponsive. "I couldn’t even tell if he was breathing or not," Thynes recalled. As he assessed the situation, he realized the emergency was twofold. "Then I turned around and noticed a pair of legs sticking out of a tent. I tried to shake them. It was a woman who wouldn’t respond to me either."
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Thynes immediately called 911. Pittsburgh Public Safety later confirmed to CNN that medics arrived promptly and transported both the man and the woman to the hospital for treatment.
But the story didn't end with the ambulance ride. Thynes, who shared on Facebook that he is "16 months sober from heroin addiction," felt a deep responsibility toward the dog who had orchestrated the rescue. When animal control arrived, they informed him the dog would be taken to a shelter "far outside the city." Worried that the owners would struggle to retrieve their pet due to distance and fees, Thynes made a generous offer.
He volunteered to foster the dog himself.
"[I]t is an honor for me to take care of this guy," Thynes wrote on Facebook, "until his humans are well enough to reunite with a dog that loves them very much."
For now, the hero dog is safe, fed, and getting plenty of attention from his temporary guardian. As Thynes told WTAE, "He’s a persistent little puppy... He’s amazing. And he definitely saved some lives."
pit bull rescue, hero dog, Gary Thynes, Pittsburgh, WTAE-TV, dog saves owners, animal control, foster dog, good news, canine hero YouTube
This article originally appeared earlier this year.
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