Masha’s mothering instincts kicked in when she found an abandoned baby. Tara kicked butt when a dog tried to attack a boy. Major dailed 911 when his owner had a seizure. These furry heroes (and more) will inspire you.
1. Orlando
“The dog saved my life,” owner Cecil Williams said of his loyal guide dog, who attempted to stop his blind, unconscious owner from falling onto the New York City subway tracks in 2013. Both fell but escaped injury, and a flood of donations following the ordeal helped Williams afford the cost of keeping the retired pooch as a pet.
2. Masha
Whoever said cats care more about catnip than they do about humans clearly has never metthis Russian feline. She kept a baby abandoned in a box warm with her long, luscious fur until a passerby discovered them and called for help. “Everyone [on] the block is very proud of her,” one local said. “We have all spoiled her rotten by giving her her favorite food.”
3. Puppies With Purpose
Kyle Camp’s four furry friends helped lead rescuers to the missing 10-year-old’s location in Alabama some 18 hours after he went missing in 2012. “I heard the dogs barking again and followed him down there and started hollering for the puppies,” said Jamie Swinney, one of the two searchers that found the boy, who stayed warm and comfortable with his pups by his side.
4. Duke
In 2012, Jenna Brousseau’s rescue dog burst into her bedroom, jumped on the bed and began shaking uncontrollably. She and her husband decided to check on their 9-week-old daughter in her bassinet and discovered the unthinkable: She wasn’t breathing. “If Duke hadn’t, you know, been so scared, then we would have just gone to sleep,” said Brousseau.
5. Major
When Terry McGlade, a U.S. marine from Zanesville, Ohio, collapsed from a seizure in 2014, his rescue pup knew just what to do – he grabbed the phone out of McGlade’s pocket with his teeth and stepped on the screen for several seconds, automatically dialing 911. It’s nothing short of uh-mazing, especially considering McGlade says the dog was never trained to perform that task.
6. Tara
When the fearless feline was caught on camera rescuing a young boy in California by pouncing on the dog during an attack, the internet was riveted. Naturally, the whole episode cat-apulted her to superstar status last year.
7. Hunter
Just two weeks after finding a forever home, the Husky-mix puppy thanked his adoptive family by rescuing them right back. The McLarty family, of Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan, says they were awakened around midnight on March 5, 2014, to a barking dog who led them to their kitchen, where a burner had been emitting dangerous fumes for six hours.
8. Henry
Steven Krichbaum was walking with his yellow Lab-mix in West Virginia’s George Washington National Forest in August of 2014 when they were confronted with two cubs and a larger black bear. Krichbaum said the dog saved his life by attacking the bear while he kept striking it with a rock. They were able to escape, but both suffered serious injuries.
