Hero Dog Runs Door to Door to Get Help for Stricken Owner


Deborah Zeisler, her hero Bear, Parker County Animal Control officer Terry Pena and Parker County Animal Control Supervisor Karen Kessler. I love stories like this. Someone saves a dog, and the dog watches over his rescuer like a guardian angel, and one day saves his person in return.

Meet Bear. He’s a lovable 180-pound (!) German shepherd who lives in Milsap, Texas, with Deborah Zeisler. About a year ago, Zeisler adopted the 5-year-old dog from a shelter just before he was to be euthanized. (Look at that noble boy above. To think he was next in line for euthanasia…)

Oddly, although Bear had no training as a service dog, he quickly figured out that Zeisler suffered from seizures, and he instinctively knew how to help her. He became her self-trained seizure dog. He gets her to sit down when he senses she is about to have a seizure, and makes sure she takes her meds.

“He will follow me to the kitchen to make sure that I take my medicine,” Zeisler told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “Once I feel better he will go lay down. Now I can tell him to go get my pills and he will go and get them for me. They might be a little slobbery, but he will go get them for me.”

But the other day, Bear tried to stop her from going out, she told KHOU. He saw the seizure coming, it seems, but Zeisler pushed past him. She collapsed and hit her head on the steps in her front yard. She lay there under the hot sun, alone, except for her most faithful companion.

The Star-Telegram reports that Bear couldn’t awaken her, so ran to a neighbor’s house and scratched on the front door for help. No one was home, so he proceeded to go to another neighbor, and on and on down the block. As luck would have it, a couple of animal control officers were on the block for another call and saw Bear going from door to door.

Parker County Animal Control Supervisor Karen Kessler opened the door of her truck, and who should run in? Yes, our noble hero.

“Bear just crawled up in my lap while I was sitting in the truck,” Kessler said. “One of his tags said ‘I am a service dog’ and another said ‘I am a seizure dog.’ When we found him we knew there was a problem because service dogs normally don’t leave their people.”

Unfortunately the tags were out of date, and the address was an old one. But the officers persevered, and following Bear’s technique of going door to door, eventually located Zeisler.

“We weren’t giving up,” said Terry Pena, Parker County animal control officer. “We knew there was someone out there who needed help.”
Zeisler, who has suffered from seizures for 18 years since a riding accident, was disoriented and confused. The officers called an ambulance. Did Bear let her out of his sight? No way. He climbed in the ambulance with her.

It’s not the first time Bear has gone looking for help for Zeisler, reports the Star-Telegram. In November when Zeisler had a seizure, Bear ran to a neighbor’s house in the middle of the night and scratched on the door to get help. This week’s rescue was a repeat performance, only a farther-reaching daytime one.

“I look at it this way,” Zeisler said. “He saved my life. He is my angel. I don’t really believe in coincidences. I think things happen for a reason,” says Zeisler, who is doing fine now, as you can see in the video below.

What a devoted, amazing dog…I wish I could shake his paw.