On a quiet summer day in Pittsburgh’s North Shore, a persistent little pup became a real-life Lassie, and two lives may have been saved because of it.
Gary Thynes was at the park with his own dog when another dog began approaching him in a curious way. “He would come just close enough for me to be out of arm’s reach, and then he would bark, turn around, run a few steps, turn around, bark again,” Thynes told WTAE. “It felt like he was trying to get my attention. And I got this overwhelming feeling that he wanted me to follow him.”
He did, leaving his pet in a friend’s care and letting the mystery dog lead him down a wooded path near railroad tracks. What he found was something no one wants to stumble upon: “He led me to a tent encampment with two [people],” Thynes said. “At first, I saw just one gentleman… he was completely unresponsive. I couldn’t even tell if he was breathing or not.”
Then he noticed a second person, a woman, whose legs were sticking out of a tent. She, too, wouldn’t wake up.
Without hesitation, Thynes called 911. “I know how quickly you need to react to save someone’s life… The very first thing that went through my head was: immediately call. Get someone out there as fast as they can go.”
Police and medics arrived quickly. The City of Pittsburgh Department of Public Safety confirmed both people were transported to a local hospital. “We are grateful to our Public Safety partners and the good Samaritan who were in the area and in a position to help,” the department shared.
As for the dog who started it all? He’s now safe in Thynes’ care.
After animal control told him they’d be taking the dog to a pound far outside the city, Thynes stepped in. “I figured that these folks wouldn’t be able to get out there to get him back … much less be able to afford the fees to get him out. So I said that I would take the dog home with me.”
Once home, he got a closer look at the four-legged hero. “He’s pretty thin, and it seems like he has a pretty bad infection in his eye … so I’m going to do whatever I can to help this little guy out the way that he helped save his owners’ lives,” Thynes wrote on Facebook.
Thynes also gave his contact info to a social worker and offered to keep the pup as long as needed. “I told her to tell [the man and woman] I would keep the dog safe… and if they would, I would keep the dog for a while if they wanted to go get treatment.”
For Thynes, caring for the dog is more than a good deed, it’s an honor. “I know how important the unconditional love of your dog can be,” he wrote, “and how much love they have for you. So it is an honor for me to take care of this guy until his humans are well enough to reunite with a dog that loves them very much.”
As he told WTAE: “He’s amazing, and he definitely saved some lives yesterday. He is a persistent little puppy.”
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