.jpg)
I can’t help it, I love animal savior stories. Be it animals saving humans or each other, animals from the same species saving each other, or different geneses still looking out for one another, I eat up these tales.
In late February another such story emerged, reported by NBC’s southwest Florida affiliate. Cindy Burnett’s Doberman, Turbo, disappeared one Sunday after the gate had been left open overnight. As soon as Burnett and her sons discovered the open gate they began searching for Turbo.
They were worried, because Turbo’s 11 years old, a bit late in life to have the energy for a long outdoor adventure. Turbo was found 15 hours later, by lunchtime on Monday. He had an unusual group of animals to thank: a pod of dolphins.
The Burnetts and Turbo live on Marco Island, just off the coast of southwest Florida. Surrounded by the ocean as they are, it’s no surprise that Turbo ended up in the water, or thus that he owes his rescue to some dolphins.
A woman who lived by a canal frequented by the marine mammals said she realized something might be wrong when she heard unrelenting splashing coming from the canal. When she went out to investigate she found Turbo, huddled and shivering in a shallow pool of water, a group of nearby dolphins making all of the noise.
The woman, who is a neighbor of Burnett’s, pulled Turbo out of the water and worked on getting him warm and dry. She was then able to hand him over to his owner when she noticed Burnett searching the street for her dog. Turbo’s discovery might have taken a lot longer if the dolphins hadn’t drawn attention to his plight.
I admit this story isn’t quite as exciting as I thought when I first read a headline about a group of dolphins saving a dog. I expected to learn about dolphins fighting off sharks to keep them away from Turbo, or them pushing Turbo out of the ocean onto a beach, all news pieces we hear sometimes in relation to dolphins saving humans.
Who knows, maybe those dolphins would have done either of those things had Turbo been in that type of distress. Perhaps Turbo wouldn’t have been comfortable accepting a dolphin’s help pushing him to shore, we just don’t know. We don’t even know if the dolphins were splashing to alert someone of Turbo’s distress, or for unrelated reasons. Though it seems likely that they were trying to help Turbo; why else would they stay near him for so long making such noise?
What’s important is that Turbo was found, and that he hadn’t stumbled into deeper waters. Treading to stay afloat for 15 hours would be a wearying chore for any dog, let alone one of Turbo’s age.
Perhaps this incident will keep Turbo from exploring too close to the water for quite a while. It will also go down as yet another example of the bond, sometimes however mysterious, that animals can often share amongst each other.
Related Articles:
The Best Animals on the Internet
Rat Terrier Saves Mini-Schnauzer
*(This image by jurvetson is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.)
