A dog is being hailed as a hero after saving an 11 year-old North Carolina boy who had been trapped in a mudslide during Hurricane Helene.
Tucker Parker has been a very good boy!
Hurricane Helene Causes Massive Mudslide
When Hurricane Helene hit at the end of last month, 11 year-old Jamie Parker was with his dog Tucker and his sister Jemma at his grandparents’ home near Asheville, North Carolina. Suddenly, when the storm was at its peak, a mudslide hit their house.
For those who don’t know, mudslides can be extremely devastating, wiping away entire buildings – or worse.
“It was terrifying for me,” Jamie recalled to WCNC Charlotte.
“All of a sudden I felt the house go like this and I saw walls coming at me and I thought, ‘What?’” his grandmother Donna Johns added.
When the mudslide burst into the home, Jamie was sitting on the couch with his sister.
“Then the house mudslided, and I face-planted into a wall, full body went flying,” he remembered.
While Donna ended up on the roof of her house, Jamie was swept under the stairs buried 12 feed under a pile of rubble.
One can only imagine something so terrifying.
“It was scary, I thought I was all alone,” he said. “I thought they went down. I thought my family had died.”
From the rooftop, Donna also assumed that her entire family was dead.
“I had yelled for Jamie and Jemma and Michael and nobody answered me,” she said. “I didn’t know if everybody was dead, and I was screaming my head off.”
Jamie desperately screamed for help, but nobody could hear him.
“It felt like forever down there,” he lamented. “I couldn’t see sunlight….I could feel water dripping on me, and I thought I was either gonna drown or run out of air. I was screaming at the top of my lungs, and my grandma couldn’t hear me.”
Meanwhile, Jamie’s grandfather found Jemma, but he couldn’t find his grandson.
That’s when Tucker came to the rescue!
Tucker The Dog Saves The Day
Just when all hope seemed lost, Jamie’s dog Tucker stepped in.
“Tucker was above me, and he was barking,” Jamie said. “I heard him whining and barking.”
Despite everything that was happening around him, Tucker refused to move from his spot, guarding his friend and trying to draw the attention of other humans.
“He stayed on top of the pile and was barking away, and I just thought he was going crazy,” Michael recalled. “I didn’t realize he had located the boy!”
Tucker stayed exactly where he was until firefighters could use a chainsaw to dig Jamie out.
“Since he has big ears and a big nose, I think he could hear me and smell me,” Jamie explained. “He was trying to tell them where I was.”
Looking back, Jamie believes he owes his life to his dog.
“I probably would have died if it wasn’t for Tucker,” he confessed.
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Tucker Returned the Favor
Jamie and his sister used their allowance money years ago to pay for Tucker. They saved him days before he was set to be put down at a shelter.
“He was the last dog there,” Jamie remembered of that moment. “When he saw us he ran right up to us.”
They rescued Tucker that day. Now, he’s returned the favor.
“And he rescued me,” Jamie concluded.
Here’s how a local Charlotte station covered the amazing story:
This just goes to show that dogs really are man’s best friend! What an amazing creature, to have the ability to find his pal and call on others for help.
Please join us in saying a prayer for all those who continue to be impacted by Hurricane Helene.
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