How One Puppy Hero Saved My Grandmother’s Life

Annabelle Camp’s heart broke when, after rescuing a puppy from the side of a road near her Newman, Georgia, home, her grandmother, whom she lived with, told the 22-year-old she couldn’t keep him. “He’ll destroy my house,” she said.

But when the Humane Society couldn’t find him a home and the
sweet boy became sick from stress, the 78-year-old reluctantly agreed to let the pup, whom Annabelle had named Mason, come live with them — as long as he never went into her bedroom. “I promise!” Annabelle said.

But then one night, Annabelle was jolted awake by Mason’s frantic barking. “What is it?” she grumbled, and when she got up and opened the door, Mason looked at her with urgency in his eyes, then sprinted down the hallway — to her grandmother’s room, where he stood outside barking.

Hurrying after him, Annabelle cracked open her grandmother’s bedroom door. Finding the bed empty, she checked the bathroom, where her grandmother was passed out on the floor!

Annabelle gasped. Her grandmother had a condition in which her heart would sometimes stop and they’d have to pour ice-cold water on her to jolt it back into beating again. Her own pulse racing, Annabelle ran and awakened her father, who rushed in to pour cold water on his mother. Instantly, her eyes fluttered open.

They urged her to go to the hospital, but her grandmother insisted she was all right. “Thanks to Mason!” Annabelle exclaimed, explaining how he’d alerted her. “He saved your life.”

Her grandmother’s lips formed a smile. “Thank you, Mason!” she cried. And in that moment, love for the pup bloomed in her heart. Today, Annabelle couldn’t be happier.

“I always knew how special animals are,” she says. “But Mason proved that dogs are angels in disguise!”

This article originally appeared in our print magazine, Animal Heroes.