The lights were out and rain poured down in the quiet mountain village of Siyathi, nestled in India’s Himachal Pradesh state. But while most of the village slept soundly, one furry resident had no plans of letting the night pass quietly.
Well past midnight on June 26th, a dog named Rocky started barking and howling uncontrollably on the ground floor of his family’s home. It was monsoon season, rain teemed outside, but his owner, Lalit Kumar, could hear him through the storm.
“I was woken by my dog’s strange barking, as if he was trying to warn me,” Lalit said.
And warn him he did.
When Lalit reached the source of the noise, he saw something chilling: a massive crack had split the wall, and water was pouring into their home. He rushed downstairs to wake the rest of his family, but what he saw next made his heart drop.
A wall of water and earth was charging down the mountain, straight toward their town.
Without wasting a second, Lalit grabbed Rocky and his family, then ran through the streets rousing neighbors. House by house, knock by knock, the alarm spread, until 22 families had fled to higher ground.
Moments later, a violent landslide roared into the village, swallowing 12 of the 17 homes in a wave of mud and debris.
All 67 people who lived in Siyathi survived that night, and every one of them owes their life to a dog that had only just joined the village. Kumar had received Rocky from his brother just three months earlier.
Thanks to Rocky’s midnight warning, an entire village was spared. And to the people of Siyathi, he’s not just a pet, he’s a four-legged hero.
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