Eddie the Little Superhero Dog

Sitting on the Metra Train to Chicago, its cold and dark. I am in Chicago for work again and dreaming of sunny Florida when an email comes up from a C.A.R.E. Dog volunteer, Christie. Christie ran into a lady that adopted a dog at C.A.R.E. at the Gift & Wine C.A.R.E. event in December. The lady shared her story of how her little C.A.R.E. dog saved her other dog from a pool drowning incident. Christie thought this would be a great story for the Critter Chronicles if I was interested. Excited to read her email, I quickly replied “Christie thank you, yes! this is a great story, please send me her contact information.” However, Christie writes back,

“Hi Rula, I asked Karen to look it up but she said she wasn’t able to.” My heart dropped, just as the train pulled into the plat form at Union Station, I thought how am I ever going to find out who this person was that Christie met. All I had to go on was the dog’s name, Eddie. As I walked through the streets of Chicago to the office building, I thought if there is one person that will know it’s Gloria, C.A.R.E.’s Animal Care Manager. She remembers all of the cats and dogs at C.A.R.E. she could tell you stories from 20 years ago (no seriously she can!).

I quickly emailed Gloria and let her know what happened, and she emails me back right away, “Hi, I have an Eddie that was adopted by” and she provided her information. Excitedly I email Eddie’s adopter, praying she will email me back with the amazing story of Eddie. Two days later, she emails me and says yes, I would love to share Eddie’s story. This lovely lady’s name is Claudine, and she generously shared her story and photos with me.

Eddie Superhero Dog

This is Claudine’s account of what took place.

It was a Sunday afternoon in November with beautiful weather outside that included a slight breeze. I had the windows open and the glass sliding door to our pool lanai open, airing out the house. Both dogs were playing around and chasing each other as I worked on multiple projects and chores throughout the house.

She was rescued from a horrible dog hoarding and abuse situation.

She was petrified of everyone and everything…except Eddie.

Eddie and her became quick friends and it grew into inseparable best friends and siblings. Tater Tot slowly opened up to me and my husband and acts like a normal dog when we are all home together. She is still scared of strangers, any man with a hat on, and going places with a lot of activity. We are slowly working with her and giving her all the time she needs and lots of love. She is also very sweet, loves to cuddle under covers, jumps further than any dog I have known, is actually the alpha dog in our house, makes us laugh, loves to give us kisses, and absolutely loves her brother Eddie.

This particular Sunday that I started telling you about, I went in my office because I was working on a project and had to finalize a design on my computer beforehand. Before going to my office I had fed the dogs and taken them both out to go to the potty. I was concentrating, working on my laptop adjusting an image, when Eddie came in the office and started yipping at me trying to get my attention. I assumed he wanted me to throw his toy as this is usually the case. I just told him to go play and continued with my project. Eddie then started to bark louder and was bumping his nose on my side. I was getting frustrated with his persistence and told him to go play again. Then by my surprise, Eddie jumped up and forcefully pushed me with both of his front legs…like to shove me. He had never done this before. I stopped what I was doing and looked at him…and in that moment that our eyes met, I could see he was trying to tell me that something was very wrong. I asked him “what” and he yipped and ran to the door of the office and turned in a circle and barked.

I got up and asked him to “show me”…he started quickly running through the house, stopping every 10ft to look and make sure I was following behind him. I kept telling him “show me” as he continued. He ran all the way through our house and out to our pool and around the corner of the house to the deep end of the pool (which you can’t see from the inside of the house). He was barking and turning in circles as he arrived at the devastating situation. There was our little Tater Tot in the pool deep end, unable to reach the edge, and her little nose/mouth was the only thing above water as she struggled to stay afloat. It was obvious she had been doing this for a while as she was fatigued and cold (pool wasn’t heated). I quickly grabbed Tater Tot out of the pool, she was shaking and exhausted. Eddie was trying to see her and get close to her. I dried her quickly and made sure she was ok. We of course praised Eddie and what a good boy he was and how proud we are of him saving his sister’s life.

For the next few hours Tater Tot slept on my lap under a warm blanket and Eddie laying next to her with his head draped over her. We all just stayed that way, cuddling and hugging each other. It was a traumatizing day that could have ended up much worse if it wasn’t for the heroic response of our amazing boy Eddie.

The bravest and smartest dog hero ever!

Since this time, neither dog is allowed to run free out in our pool cage without us being right there to watch or without them both wearing life jackets. We later found Tater Tots favorite stuffed ball in the pool skimmer.

So either she fell into the pool with it in her mouth, or the ball rolled into the pool and she was trying to get it.

A very special thank you to Claudine and her husband for sharing this amazing story of Eddie. A thank you to Christie, C.A.R.E. Dog volunteer, for brining this story to me. I also wanted to share that this story touched me in many ways. I remember Eddie at the shelter, I spent Saturday afternoons with him at the shelter, he is so sweet, playful, and adorable. What this story also brings for me is the pain of losing an animal to drowning. My husband and I sadly lost our senior dog Elwood, to a pool drowning. It is a day that will forever be etched in our memories. To have Claudine’s story is such a powerful reminder of the importance of pool safety and to pay attention to your dogs and cats, they have something important to tell you!