3. Duke: Wake Up Already!
With their nine-week baby girl snug in her bassinet, Jenna Brousseau and her husband went to get some much-needed sleep themselves. In the middle of the night, their dog, Duke, jumped on their bed. He was shaking uncontrollably. Realizing this was completely out of character for the dog, the parents got out of bed and checked on their baby. She wasn’t breathing! The parents made a fast and frantic call to 911 and emergency responders arrived and revived the baby girl. They took her to the hospital where she recovered, and the parents looked at Duke as the hero. Dear Reader, share your thoughts: How did Duke realize she wasn’t breathing?
4. Rufus and Target: Bomb Blockers
When Chris Duke was a National Guardsman serving in Afghanistan, three stray dogs saved his life and the lives of his entire unit. As a suicide bomber approached the men, Sasha, Rufus, and Target, the stray dogs (if you didn’t figure that out) started acting erratically. Then the trio attacked the bomber who blew himself up before entering the barracks! Sasha sustained mortal wounds and had to be euthanized. Rufus and Target recovered, and when Chris Duke returned home, he started a fundraising campaign to bring the two heroes to America. Rufus went to live with Duke, and Target traveled to Arizona to live with Sgt. Terry Young, another soldier the dogs saved. However, one day Target ran away from her yard. She got picked up by animal control and taken to a shelter. Sgt. Young learned where she was and paid the fine, but before he could retrieve her, the dog was mistakenly euthanized.
