Our Angel Animals Story of the Week published this amazing story about a determined dog name Jessie doing what it takes to save a little girl's life. Hope you enjoy it.

OUR DOG HERO, JESSIE
by Anna Samarenko

Recently I went on a trip to the states and saw your book ANGEL ANIMALS in the airport. Being an animal lover, I decided to buy it. What a fantastic read. You had me crying and smiling at the same time.

I thought I would also share with you my story of an angel animal who saved a little girl's life.

During the Easter holidays four or five years ago, some family friends came to stay with us for a couple of days. It was a family with two children, the youngest being four years old.

At this time we had a wonderful German shepherd called Jessie. She had started life abandoned. I had rescued her as a puppy from a shelter when she was four months old.

Jessie not only adored children but was also a very good guard dog. Her favorite activity was pretending to be a lifeguard at our outside pool and barking loudly if anyone stayed underwater for longer than a minute. She had done this for several years, and as soon as someone decided to go swimming, Jessie would be by his or her side. Occasionally and accidentally on purpose she would fall in the pool as she loved to swim herself.

One day the four-year-old girl decided that she was going swimming and didn't tell anyone. She was not able to swim without floatation armbands but she had not put them on. Luckily Jessie was with her. Our dog realized something was wrong when the girl didn't come out of the water for a long time.

Jessie ran into the house. She could open any door with her weight on the door handle. She started barking at the girl's father. He wasn't a great dog lover so told her to be quiet and ignored her.

Jessie realized that this tactic was not going to work, so she bit his trouser leg and pulled him towards her. As she did this, she ripped the bottom of his trousers and ran to the pool with the cloth in her mouth. The father then chased her outside where he realized his little girl was in trouble.

He dived in and saved her. Only then did he apologize to me about all the names he had called Jessie while chasing her. By then he knew that Jessie had saved his daughter that day.

Jessie truly was God's gift to humans. She was such an amazing animal.

BIO:
Anna Samarenko is twenty-three years old. She is studying equine business management in London and regularly competes in dressage. She has five horses and one rescue dog.

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT:

Has an animal done something unusual that alerted you to a dangerous situation?