Excerpt from a book by Ace Collins:

National Dog Day: How Sadie saved Michael's life
By Ace Collins
Published August 26, 2014

The dictionary defines a hero as “a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities.” A hero shows acceptance and fairness. He doesn’t judge. He’s loyal, forgiving, loving, and honest. He’s someone who will stand with you when things are bad and celebrate your accomplishments when things are good.

It takes these combined qualities to fully define a hero. Trouble is, it’s hard to find a human who can claim them all. Sure, we occasionally see news headlines of someone who has gone above and beyond, but maybe it’s time to look at our feet—to the four paws sitting next to us. While few humans possess every quality of a hero, it is the very nature of a dog to exhibit them all.

In honor of National Dog Day [August 8, 2014], I want to celebrate the canines in our lives who are so much more than pets. Time and time again, dogs come to the rescue of their owners, exhibit the most special form of unconditional love, and step beyond the call of duty to do the impossible.

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Sadie was a forty-five pound English setter, a breed that for four centuries has been pointing out winged game to hunters. Trained to not only find and flush the birds but also to stay calm during the firearm’s discharge, the English setter is a canine with a singular purpose. And because of that purpose, few members of the breed are seen outside of rural areas.

Setters are by nature high-energy animals. They love to run, and when not hunting, they are carefree children of the dog world. They have little desire to herd sheep or do farm chores, they don’t pull wagons or sleds; for them, life is a play just waiting to be experienced. Therefore, nothing in Sadie’s breeding or training positioned her for the responsibility that was about to fall on her slight shoulders and lean body.

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It took the setter just over an hour to complete her impossible journey and drag the man who outweighed her by one- hundred-forty pounds into the yard. Now, just as some deep- seated instinct had told Sadie to pull Miller the third of a mile to home, another instinct told the dog to fight free of the man’s grip. Shaking loose, she raced to the back door, yelping and scratching until Miller’s wife, Lisa, came to find out what was the fuss was all about.

“Sadie,” Lisa practically yelled, “what has gotten into you? I’m going to put you in your pen until you can calm—”

Lisa never finished her threat as her eyes fell upon her husband’s crumpled and motionless form just a few yards in front of her. “My Lord,” she sighed, rushing out the door. Lisa and Sadie both arrived by the man’s side at the same time.

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“Stay with him, Sadie,” Lisa ordered as she ran back to the house. Grabbing the phone, the woman dialed 9-1-1.

Within twenty minutes paramedics were ministering to the barely breathing man. Doing all they could for him on site, the medical team then raced him to the emergency room, where he was stabilized and prepared for emergency triple bypass surgery.

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More:
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/08/2...intcmp=features

Ace Collins is the best-selling and award-winning author of more than sixty titles, both fiction and nonfiction, including the biography "Lassie: A Dog’s Life." This story of Sadie and Michael is an excerpt from his latest book "Man’s Best Hero: True Stories of Great American Dogs.