Hero

36 year old Shannon Lorio - a mother to five children and 6 dogs - admitted in a TV interview that she was driving too fast when she lost control of her car. It ended up tumbling "backward down an embankment in a remote, heavily wooded area" of north Georgia near Thomasville. She was somehow thrown onto the car's trunk with her feet still inside. Said Lorio:

I was bleeding from my face and my nose. All of a sudden, I felt a presence -- a really huge presence. He was straddling me. I have watched too many horror movies about werewolves and vampires. I thought he was going to eat me.

Which is what you might expect from an animal not looking too much different from a wolf when he catches the smell of blood in the wild. But what he did was lick the blood from Mrs. Lorio's face; then he took hold of her by the shirt collar and dragged her through the brambles and briars and back up to the highway where he provided a support for her to lean against while she flagged down help.

What was the dog doing out there in the middle of nowhere at just the right time? It seems he had a wandering spirit, and had developed the habit of running away, which inspired his real owners to sign him over to the Humane Society.

Professional dog trainer Heidy Drawdy, of Thomasville, is going to adopt him (50 others have volunteered to do the same) because she thinks he might have "the right stuff" - to be the search and rescue sort. She's trained others who have performed that duty in the wake of natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina. Lorio can't adopt him because she's already got six, but she's "showered him with gifts" and swears that "If he ever needs anything, I'll be there." Here she is thanking him:






















Here's a fuller picture of him:




And at the bottom of this page, a great video, if you can suffer through a 30 second commercial preceding it.

Here's another story, equally remarkable.

And if you like dogs, you might like this blog.