Heidi is a search and rescue dog.  For the most part, Heidi finds other lost pets, and is occasionally hired to find drugs, too.  One day in February, Heidi seemed to find something rather unexpected – deadly cancer hiding in her human’s lungs.

Anne Wills is Heidi’s human, and she describes some unusual behavior Heidi was showing when the heroic dog first detected something wasn’t right.

“She was physically barricading me on the couch,” said Wills.  “She was drooling and scratching at my arms.”

Wills is the owner of Dogs Finding Dogs tracking service based out of Arbutus, Maryland.  At first she though that Heidi might have been sick.  She took the dog to the vet and was told everything with Heidi was just fine.  That’s when Wills decided to get herself checked out as well.  A CT scan brought the problem into focus straight away.

Heidi isn’t the first dog to find cancer in a human.  Many people still aren’t convinced that dogs can actually detect cancer by smell, but the evidence that this is possible is overwhelming.  Since about 2004 there have been published studies of dogs detecting many forms of cancer in humans very accurately.

Wills is very lucky that Heidi found what she did when she did.  Luckily the cancer was in what doctors were calling “Stage 3a.”  In that stage the cancer had spread a little, but not so much that there was no hope for medical intervention.  If Heidi hadn’t found it when she had, and it got to Stage 3b, things could have been very different for Anne Wills.

“I’m so thankful for her,” said Wills.  “But if she starts acting funny again, I’ll be on my doctor’s doorstep, and I don’t care if it’s midnight.”

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The sad truth for many dogs is that when they get older, they are often abandoned at shelters or left with no place to go when their owners die or go to nursing homes.  But there are many kind-hearted people in the world, like the people at House with a Heart, a retirement home for dogs.

“We have dogs come to live with us until the end of their life, and we make sure that the end of their life is full of love and caring, lots of attention, and we make sure they get all the medical care they need,” said Sher Polvinale, director of House with a Heart Senior Pet Sanctuary.

In 2006, she and her (late) husband Joe began a sanctuary for senior pets in the Gaithersburg, Maryland home.  Anywhere from 20 to 40 dogs who otherwise might be euthanized find themselves in a loving home with lots of others they form new bonds with.

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At first, the dog seemed very scared, and didn’t want anything worse to happen.  The dog pretty much refused to leave the human’s side, so rescuers had to distract it to administer first aid.

They tried to call the dog away, but that wasn’t happening.  So, they grabbed a standard fire extinguisher, and sprayed it off in the air.  The noise got the dog to leave the man’s side, and the man was saved.

Firefighters said that the dog was never aggressive in any way towards them.  They knew the dog was scared for his human, and they understood that.  Even after they got to the man and administered first aid, the dog eventually made his way back to the man, and laid down by his side again.

The man is expected to be OK, and is in the good hands at a local hospital.  The man’s daughter was also in the home at the time, but was not badly injured and is expected to be just fine as well.  Rescue teams also took two turtles and a couple other dogs out of harm’s way as well, and all are doing just fine.

https://youtu.be/9sqiAiw_SZM

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