Did you ever wonder how intelligent a dog might be? I think many of us have wondered about this from time to time, but it could turn out dogs are much more intelligent than we suspect. One dog was left in a sweltering car in the middle of a summer heat wave. Apparently his owners had gone into their house and forgot about him. The dog realizing he was in a dangerous situation and went into the front of the car and began to honk the horn. This is a true story and it happened in 2010.

One dog owner had to go out of town so he asked some friends if they would watch his dog and they said yes. One of the members of the family had forgotten he left a pot on the stove with the flame under it and went to bed. As the water in the pot boiled out, a fire started and burning plastic began to fill the house with smoke, because a hairbrush had been left in the pot to sterilize. None of the new smoke alarms which had been purchased activated. The dog smelling the smoke jumped on top of the woman who owned the house and woke her up and she was able to alert the rest of the family and they were able to get out of the house without being harmed. The dog had saved them all.

A man was in his SUV along with his dog, a cocker spaniel. As he backed the SUV up he went too far back and the SUV fell into a ravine forty feet below. The vehicle had landed on its roof which pinned the man inside the car. After working for several hours the man was able to get a window down and asked the dog to go get help. The dog left and found someone about a half a mile away and brought them back to the car which in turn saved the man’s life.

A blind man had a guide dog which was a boxer. It was a seeing-eye dog. It had helped the man in his life for four years and one day the man was walking his son to school when a car ran through a stop sign and headed for the man’s son. The dog seeing this jumped at the son pushing him out of the way. The dog took the brunt of the hit and died. He had given his life up to save the life of the man’s son.

There was a famous dog that lived in Wales during the 1930s, his name was Swansea Jack. He lived near the Swansea River. One day the dog noticed a boy drowning in the river and jumped in, grabbed him and dragged him back to the shore. He had saved the boy’s life. That wasn’t the end of his feats however, during his lifetime he saved twenty-seven people who were drowning in that river and because of his feats of bravery he was given a silver collar by the city Council and the bravest dog of the year award along with a silver cup from the Mayor of London and his very own statue.

One woman found a stray dog and decided to find out if anybody owned it, so she took pictures and posted them around. She only intended to keep the dog for a day or two and told her two children not to get attached to it. One of her children was very sickly and he had Down Syndrome along with other ailments and had gone through several operations recently. She had the dog for four days and was arriving home from work when the dog threw itself against the screen door. The dog was barking madly at her and led her into the sick boy’s room. Once she reached his bed the dog went silent. The boy was choking and if she hadn’t helped him he would’ve died, the dog had saved his life. The dog became a permanent resident of the home.

In 2006 the owner of a German Shepherd died. The dog ran away from the home and somehow was able to find the grave of his former owner. When the family went to the grave to pay their respects they found the dog sitting there and wailing. The dog spends most of his time at the grave, but does leave for short periods of time to go back with the family. The dog always returns to the graveside before dark.

A man was caught in an avalanche. No matter how hard he tried he couldn’t dig his way out and believed this could be the end of his life. As he got colder he heard what he thought was digging above him and then a hole opened up and he saw the friendly panting face of a golden retriever. Not only had the dog found him, but led others to where he was. Contrary to what most people believe are the most proficient rescue dogs, they are not St. Bernards. Rescue dogs are usually German Shepherds, Golden Retrievers or Border Collies.

Three suspects beat a sheriff’s deputy and had a box cutter. A police dog attacked the men. The men had dragged the police officer into the woods and were going to kill him. Somehow the police officer had managed to press a button that opened the police car door letting the dog out. The dog then ran to his aid and bit one and possibly two of his assailants. They know the dog did a lot of damage, because he had blood all over him and it wasn’t his.

I almost feel obligated after telling you about all these hero dogs to tell you about a hero cat or two. A woman had been a diabetic since she was a little child. She had adopted a cat from a shelter a few years before and it was a big cat which weighed over twenty pounds. One day the woman went into a diabetic seizure and the cat seeing this jumped up on the woman’s chest trying to wake her up and when he couldn’t he began swatting her face with his paw and biting her nose and managed to bring her out of the seizure. At that point she was able to yell to her son to help her. The next cat story seems even more incredible, but the people claim it is true. A man had fallen out of his wheelchair and the police had received a 911 call. When they got to the apartment the cat was lying next to the telephone which was off the hook. The man who fell out of the wheelchair said he didn’t make the call and there was nobody else in the room but the cat. He said I know this sounds weird, but the cat must’ve called the police.