 |
|
Last Thursday night, a man was riding his bicycle with his dog (in a crate) along Highway 1 near Santa Cruz, California, when they were struck by a car. The impact pushed the bike down an embankment, killing the man and leaving the dog unhurt, while the driver of the car sped off. This is just standard, tragic police-report stuff, but what makes this story special is that, when investigators arrived at the scene, the dog, a Cairn terrier mix, was lying down and keeping vigil by his owner’s body.
On the dogster blog, writer Anneli Rufus links this story to two other recent situations in which a dog stayed with the body of his best friend until someone arrived. She asks the questions:
Do dogs in these situations know that their beloved people are not simply asleep? Can they smell death? What do they think about while waiting for some kind of help to arrive?
Right now, the loyal little dog is being held at Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter for evaluation. We hope he finds a new forever home soon to help him recover from this traumatic experience.