Heroic dog crosses busy street to get owners emergency help in Pittsburgh
As local resident Gary Thynes put it both in a social media post and an interview with the Pittsburgh television station WTAE, he was playing with his dog at a park on the evening of 29 July when a pit bull approached barking and evidently trying to get someone's attention.
Thynes left his dog with a friend and then began following as he was led away by the pit bull. He and the animal crossed a street teeming with motorists and ended up at a tent encampment along a 'super secluded' path behind some train tracks, where Thynes found a man lying on a red couch and unsuccessfully tried to wake him, he recounted on Facebook.
He told WTAE that he also spotted an unconscious woman whose legs were sticking out of a tent. Thynes called 911 to report the scene to first responders, who arrived within minutes to take the pair to the hospital, he later posted on Facebook.
Pittsburgh's public safety department later confirmed to media outlets that a man and a woman – both unresponsive – had been taken from the encampment to the hospital.
'We are grateful to our public safety partners and the good samaritan who were in the area and were in a position to help,' officials also said.
Thynes wrote that he soon encountered a social worker who knew the two people taken to the hospital were unhoused. The social worker also knew the dog who led Thynes to the two people was theirs, he wrote.
Instead of leaving the dog in the custody of a local pound, Thynes wrote that he agreed to care for the pit bull while the animal's owners remained hospitalized.
'It is an honor for me to take care of this guy until his humans are well enough to reunite with a dog that loves them very much,' said Thynes, whose post and interview on WTAE gained widespread attention online.
Thynes told WTAE that the pit bull he is fostering 'is a persistent little puppy, … amazing, and … definitely saved some lives'.
Furthermore, he shared on Facebook that he is in recovery from heroin addiction and said he was 'so glad sobriety … put me in tune with my intuition more' on the day he met the attentive animal.
'The experience has been surreal but it only reaffirms to me that God is real and he speaks to you … if you choose to listen,' Thynes wrote. 'And I'm so glad that I did.'
Officials did not immediately share details about the two people's conditions or what had caused them to become unresponsive. Yet among those who have contributed to a flood of commentary on Thynes's Facebook page was a user who wrote: 'This is the woman [whose] life you and my dog saved – my boyfriend and I would love to meet you.'
A separate comment from the same user under a picture of the pit bull, which Thynes hashtagged 'herodog', said: 'Thank you … momma can't wait to get home to you.'
Thynes replied: 'He's all good! He will be here when you are ready.'
'We will forever be in debt to you,' the user identifying as the dog's owner wrote to Thynes in another exchange.
Thynes responded: 'I'm so glad you're both OK. I know it's hard. I've been there … it can get better.'
The pit bull pup is not the only one who has flagged down life-saving aid from first responders.
In September, a dog saved her owner – who hurt his leg at home in rural Washington state, fell and couldn't get up for hours – by walking to a road, sitting in the middle of it until a local sheriff's deputy stopped, and leading the officer to him.
A few months before that, a dog ran four miles to get help for his owner who crashed his car into a ravine in Oregon. That dog's owner was ultimately rescued.
And in January 2024, a man who plunged through the ice on a frozen Michigan lake was saved when his dog brought him rescue equipment at the direction of a state police officer who then pulled the animal's owner to safety.
One of the Facebook comments left for Thynes pointed out how he had labeled the pit bull in his case 'a hero'.
'But,' the post said, 'you are too!'
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