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Updates On 16th Oct 2013

 




Rescued Pit Bull Saves Boy Days After Adoption

Written by Susan Bird of Care2.com

Call it karma. Christi Smith saved a pit bull pup from certain death at the hands of Animal Control. Four days later, the dog repaid her by saving her son’s life.

His name is TatorTot, though it used to be Gator. Smith, who fosters dogs for Ruff Start Rescue in Princeton, Minn., was at first reluctant to take in Gator. She was concerned, based on how his personality had been described, that he might be too energetic for her mellow home.

When it became clear a few weeks later that Ruff Start Rescue wouldn’t be able to rescue any more “bully breeds” until Gator had a foster home, Smith took him in right away.

“I have an understanding of the breed, so I figured I’d work with him and get him adopted fairly quickly,” Smith told twincities.com.

She brought 10-month-old Gator home on Sept. 28 and renamed him TatorTot. He was indeed rambunctious, but that was nothing a good run in the local dog park couldn’t cure. With some good old fashioned exercise, TatorTot became a rather mellow fellow himself, says Smith.

After a day or so, Smith began warming up to TatorTot and starting thinking seriously of keeping him. On his fourth night in the Smith home, TatorTot sealed the deal.

Smith’s 4-year-old son, Peyton Anderson, went to bed around 8:30 p.m. His mother says he woke up sometime between midnight and 1:30 a.m. asking for a glass of water. Smith said, ”He was acting weird — really out of it. I chalked it up to being deliriously tired. I wasn’t too concerned.”

TatorTot knew differently, somehow.

“After putting Peyton back to bed, not even 20 minutes later, TatorTot began running back and forth from Peyton to me,” Smith said. “He was barking and acting like something was wrong. I was like, ‘What, didn’t you get enough exercise today? Come lay down, it’s bedtime.’ He didn’t let up.”

Finally, Smith decided to check on her son. “TatorTot was on his bed, barking and pawing at him, licking his face,” she said. “Any normal child would have woken up. He wasn’t waking up.”

Smith realized Peyton was barely breathing. She couldn’t get him to wake up. Terrified, she rushed her son to the hospital, where doctors had to give him an adrenaline shot to revive him. Later, tests revealed Peyton’s blood glucose levels had been dangerously low.

“Peyton’s levels were so low that he could have had a seizure, or fallen into a coma, or even died,” Smith said. ”Medical alert dogs are not uncommon, but they usually have to undergo training. With TatorTot, I just got extremely lucky and blessed that he knew something was wrong.”

It turns out Peyton is not diabetic, so further testing will be necessary to find out why he had this blood sugar incident. In the meantime, TatorTot and Peyton are fast friends. Christi Smith says TatorTot has become a cherished member of her family.

“I am never going to let this dog go,” she said. ”I owe him for the rest of his life. He saved me from the worst heartbreak a human can experience on this Earth; he saved me the heartbreak of losing Peyton.”

Source: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=637269316296384&set=a.135131043176883.16781.109342202422434&type=1&relevant_count=1



 

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