Amazingly Animal Story - 15
I heard the neighbor whisper it to her husband the day I moved into the apartment complex with Rambo; my red-nose Pitbull with a crooked tail and the goofiest underbite you’ve ever seen.
They avoided us in the hallway. They complained to management. They even asked for me to be moved to another building.
Three weeks ago, everything changed. That same neighbor fell in her kitchen. Eighty four years old. All alone. Her hip shattered. She couldn’t reach her phone.
Rambo heard her through the wall. He wouldn’t stop barking, not his usual playful bark, but something sharp, urgent, desperate.
He scratched at our shared wall so hard his paws started bleeding. That’s when I finally understood something was wrong and called 911 for a welfare check.
The paramedics later said that if they had arrived an hour later, Mrs. Palmerston might not have survived.
She spent three weeks in the hospital. And the very first thing she did when she returned home?
She knocked on my door, slowly went down to her knees—bad hip and all—and wrapped both arms around my “dangerous” dog. “I’m sorry,” she cried into Rambo’s neck. “I’m so sorry I judged you.”
Now Rambo visits her every morning. Mrs. Palmerston saves a little bacon from her breakfast just for him.
Funny how the ones they call dangerous… become family.
