Sometimes Dogs Do Good Things, I Guess

A couple of days ago I was walking up Orchard Street on my way to get lunch, when I saw a mail carrier with her cart approaching a door to an apartment building. Just as she was about to enter, the door opened and a young woman came out leading a large, muscular pitbull on a leash. As soon as the dog saw the mail carrier, it growled loudly and lunged at her, jerking its owner off balance. The mail carrier jumped too, and hurried behind her cart for protection. The dog’s owner, who was a slight, pretty woman, and very fashionably dressed, leaned all her weight against the leash, scolding her dog, dragging it away and apologizing. That’s funny, I thought, dogs really do hate mail carriers.

The dog then changed direction and pulled the woman into the street, right in front of an oncoming cab, which slowed to stop. The dog stopped too, and then squatted to poop. Right in the middle of the street, right in front of the cab. The owner made noises of anger and embarrassment and gestured that way to the cab driver, who smiled and didn’t honk his horn or anything. I thought, Ha! Dogs! They’ll never stop doing things that bother us. And as I walked away, I wondered as I often do, what it was that made people — especially people in the city, especially those who have big dogs — want to go through all the trouble.

I would never want to have a dog. And every time I hear one barking or see poop on the sidewalk, I wish everyone in New York felt the same way. But here, this week, the Humane Society offers a compelling argument for the value of dogs: The 10 finalist in their Fourth Annual Dogs of Valor Awards:

There’s Sirus, from Conneaut, Ohio, who was shot as he protected his family from a gun wielding home invader.

And Gangsta, in Seldon, New York, who alerted family members to the fact that his owner was having an epileptic seizure in a bathtub filling with hot water.

Effie, in Pine City, Minnesota, who led her owner to a 94-year-old neighbor who had fallen and lay bleeding and unconscious in the snow.

Diamond, of Hayward, California, and Coco, from Summerfield, Florida, both of whom woke up their owners and saved them from fires. (Poor Coco perished from smoke inhalation four days later.)

Emmet, too, from Boise, Idaho, gave his own life in saving his owner from a live power line that had fallen in their yard.

Yogi, from Austin, Texas, who ran and got help after his owner had fallen from his mountain bike and broken his neck and lay paralyzed on a remote trail.

Wyatt Earp, from Royal Oak, Michigan, who barked until help arrived after his owner, a diabetic, lost consciousness due to low blood sugar.

Ceili, from Portland, Oregon, who apparently tried to warn her owner that he was about to suffer a heart attack and alerted his wife once it had happened.

You can vote for your favorite Dog of Valor “People’s Hero” at the Humane Society website. I think I won’t, but if I did, I would probably choose this pooch from Forsyth, Ohio:

Doug Claypool wanted to read his book. So around 9:00 p.m., he left his family watching TV and went into his room, taking his 3-year old German shepherd, Sarge, with him and closing the door. He fell asleep, but Sarge woke him around midnight by barking at the bedroom door. When Claypool opened the door to investigate, Sarge raced down the hallway, sniffing the air. He suddenly stopped and made a u-turn back down the hallway to Claypool’s 15-year-old daughter’s room. Sarge sniffed the door, then scratched and growled at it. Claypool tried to open door, but someone inside the room was holding it shut. Claypool ran to another part of the house and grabbed his handgun. He then forced his daughter’s door open, and ordered the intruder to get on the floor. Sarge started towards the unknown man, but Claypool called him back and held the intruder at gunpoint until sheriff’s deputies arrived. Claypool’s daughter had remained asleep when the man was in her room.

Dumb dogs. Sometimes they save us.