Sometimes great art happens inadvertently. This morning, I watched this video captured by an Alaska State Trooper’s dashboard camera and I burst into tears. It is so haunting, beautiful, dramatic, and primal. It is the essence of dog love and it is a masterpiece.
Here is the story from James Halpin of the Anchorage Daily News:
Alaska
State Troopers plan to recognize a German shepherd named Buddy for what
they say are his “valiant actions” guiding an officer to the scene of a
fire earlier this month.
Buddy’s owner, 23-year-old Ben Heinrichs, was working on a vehicle in a
shop outside the family’s home in the Caswell Lakes area the night of
April 4 when a spark from a heater ignited gasoline and gave Heinrichs
flash burns to his face and second-degree burns to his left hand, he
said.
He went outside and rolled to put out the flames. Buddy, a 5-year-old
companion Heinrichs has had since a puppy, had been shut in the shop,
so Heinrichs let him out of the burning structure.
“I just told him, ‘We need to get help,’ and then that’s the last time
I seen him,” Heinrichs said. “I didn’t train him or nothing. He just
took off and went and did what he did. … He was just being a good
dog.”
The sequence of events, as related by troopers, runs like an episode of “Lassie.”
An officer responding to a call about the fire, trooper Terrence
Shanigan, was having trouble finding the scene because his global
positioning device was on the fritz, troopers spokeswoman Beth Ipsen
said.
Shanigan, who almost took the long way around the neighborhood, came
across Buddy on Caswell Loop Road. The dog took off, and acting on a
hunch, Shanigan followed the dog down a side road, she said.
A video shot by the trooper’s dashboard camera shows Buddy trotting
along the side of the road coming toward the officer, then looking at
the vehicle and breaking into a run as Shanigan follows. The dog runs
ahead of the patrol vehicle and takes a left turn, ending up at the
burning structure.
Troopers are convinced the dog was leading Shanigan to the fire, Ipsen said.
“Buddy’s a pretty shy dog, and he was several blocks away just kind of
hanging out. By all accounts this is not normal behavior for him,”
Ipsen said. “Buddy’s not trained. This is something he did pretty much
on his own.”
The workshop, which was fully engulfed in flames, was destroyed, but
Heinrichs said he thinks Buddy’s actions prevented the fire from
spreading to the family’s home.
Troopers plan to recognize Buddy’s bravery at a ceremony today. The
family will get a letter and Buddy will receive a metal dog bowl
engraved with the troopers’ logo and Buddy’s name with the words, “In
appreciation of your diligence and assistance to Alaska State Troopers.”
Now go hug your dog. And have a great weekend.
by the Monks of New Skete, who have been breeding German Shepherds for over 20 years. I used this book to train and understand (the Monks are big on understanding your dog, which I love) my Dachshund. I wonder if that’s why he thinks he’s a big dog?
