12 Pets Who Heroically Saved Their Owners’ Lives / Bright Side

The bonds we form with animals can feel deeper and more meaningful than those we share with other people. Pets aren’t just companions, they’re heroes in disguise. From sensing danger to taking quick action, animals have an incredible instinct when it comes to protecting the ones they love.

• “When I was a kid (teenager) we had two golden retrievers. One lazy fall afternoon, I was sitting in my backyard with my mom on my childhood swing set with Zack and Jazzie (dogs) talking when Zack started to get very emphatic about going for a walk or at least leaving the backyard quickly. We ignored them and continued to chat for a while, but he got more and more agitated, so eventually we figured we’d walk down the block with them. Well, we were about 50 yards away from my house when we heard a massive crack and a huge boom. Turns out one of the large trees in our backyard had died, and a giant branch had snapped and fallen. The branch COMPLETELY destroyed the swing set. It would have crushed us if we hadn’t gotten up. Always thought he must have known something was amiss because it was pretty out of character the way he was acting.” kaetherial / Reddit
• “I don’t really remember it happening because I was 4 at the time. My parents told me our dog saved my life when we were on a family trip in the mountains, hiking up to a waterfall. I tripped and started to slide off the side of the path under the handrailing, and our dog, a large rottweiler, grabbed my by my coat and pulled me back right before I would have fallen down a steep bank into a fast moving river. That dog was my best friend growing up, I miss him.” crasht3st / Reddit
• My dad, always complained about our parrot, Polly, because she was so loud. One night, she started squawking loudly over and over. At first, we thought she was just being annoying, but then we realized something wasn’t right. Turns out that a candle had tipped over, and the curtains were on fire. Polly yelling woke everyone up just in time to stop it.
• “Our gentle family dog came to the door and started barking and wouldn’t come in the house, just did circles and became agitated to the point my mom thought he might bite her. So she went outside, and he led her to my special needs sister, who had wandered to the canal behind our house. She was on the bank, muddy and struggling to crawl. After that, we had a chain link fence installed and our dog became major royalty. My sister had never done anything like this before because she didn’t like or was afraid of grass.” lunamoth53 / Reddit

• Our cat, Whiskers, hates water and avoids the bathroom at all costs. But one night, he started meowing and scratching at the bathroom door nonstop. It was so out of character that we decided to check. When we opened the door, water was pouring from a burst pipe under the sink, flooding the floor. If Whiskers hadn’t warned us, it would’ve caused serious damage. He definitely earned extra treats that night.
• “My 18-month-old cousin was saved by her huge St. Bernard, Nana. Her family lived out in the country, off a dirt road, with no neighbors close by. She was playing outside with her two older sisters while my aunt, her mom, was washing dishes in the kitchen. Nana was a very quiet, well-behaved dog, so when my aunt saw Nana barking furiously and barreling past the window, she knew something was horribly wrong. She ran outside and saw a man had pulled over his car, leaned over to open the passenger side door, and was helping my cousin into the car. Nana charged the car, grabbed my cousin by the diaper, and ripped her out of the stranger’s grasp. The St. Bernard galloped back to the house, with her screaming and wriggling from the dog’s mouth as the man sped off.” BlueMacaw / Reddit
• “Since I’ve only heard this story, and don’t actually remember it, it probably changed my mom’s life more than mine, but when I was little we lived on 14 acres right on a river bank. There was one day that my (very pregnant) mom brought me home from grocery shopping (I was about 2), put me inside, and went back out to get the rest of the groceries. I somehow snuck out the door and wandered down to the river. My mom freaked out when she went into the house and couldn’t find me, and headed for the river, sure that I was drowning. She found me standing with my toes on the very edge of the river and our German Shorthaired Pointer sitting very calmly behind me with my shirt in his mouth, holding me back. I probably owe that dog my life.” KateMayme / Reddit
• “My family came home late one night and our dog (Peggy the pug) was locked on the back porch barking her head off. We never locked the doors or put the dog outside. So my mom knew something was wrong. She let the dog in, and she went tearing up the stairs, barking like crazy. My mom thought someone must be in the house, so she took us 3 kids and left immediately.
  The cops came (along with a few of my moms siblings) and searched the house, found nobody. All but one cop leaves. My mom begs to do one more search upstairs because that’s where Peggy went running. My uncle ends up finding a man hiding in our attic wearing nothing but jogging shorts and carrying a knife. He had my sister’s bedding and stuffed animal in the attic with him. He told the cops he’d been living there for 3 days.” sophlog / Reddit

• My buddy Jake adopted a wild shelter dog named Mia, full of energy and impossible to control. She escaped every fence and even dug up the stake Jake used to keep her tied down. Despite the chaos, he refused to give up on her.
  One night, after a party, a fire broke out in Jake’s house while his brother, Sam, slept in the basement. Mia woke Jake by barking and jumping on his bed until he got up and saw the fire. She then barked at the basement stairs, leading Sam to safety through the smoke.
• “Was walking towards a highly venomous snake that was coiled up and hissing at me when I was a toddler. My Doberman ran in front of me and headbutted me, so I’d stay down while she barked for my mom, who came and picked me up a few seconds later.” applenerd / Reddit
• “My horse, Sunny. We lived in a rural area in Canada. My parents weren’t too strict, so I was allowed to go out into the pasture on my own from age 6 and up. One day, while mindlessly walking my horse around, he started to act up, which was very odd for him. He was extremely laid back. I still paid no attention, and kept leading him. Suddenly, he knocked me over with his big head (ow) and took off into the brush. When he emerged from the brush, I realized he was trying to chase a pack of mangy looking coyotes. At least five of them, who looked hungry enough to take me down, at the time a small child. I watched him chase them away for a long time, then he deemed it was enough and came trotting back to me. Another time I fell off while riding him, he stopped, looked at me like I was an idiot and waited for me to climb back on.” FearlessEyes / Reddit
• “This happened to my cousin (7 years old). We were in India on a top part of the highway (something like a bridge; another highways goes under that part) and there was part of a mountain on the side with a lot of monkeys (macaques). They kept on trying to get our food and stuff (we were parked on the side to take a snack break) when all of a sudden my cousin is looking down at the other highway and starts to tip over the railing and is about to fall. One of the monkeys grabbed his shirt and pulled him back, saving his life. Yes, we gave the monkeys some food.” Taffarr / Reddit

A zookeeper and the giraffe he cared for over 10 years shared an unbreakable bond, and in a heartbreaking twist, they both passed away on the same day.