If you don’t live in the Philadelphia area, you may have missed the story of Alfie, a German Shepherd who followed his boy across the roofs of eight homes!
Young Phillip, just shy of his second birthday, apparently climbed out of a broken bedroom window and onto the roof of his family’s home. Alfie the German Shepherd followed his boy out onto the roof of the row home and across the porch rooftops of at least eight homes.
Neighbors who saw the boy and dog on the roof said that they were alerted to the situation by Alfie’s barking. Finally, a neighbor managed to climb out the window and catch the boy, who thought it was all a wonderfully fun game. Alfie stayed at Phillip’s side the whole time, protecting him. You can now see the footprints of boy and dog across the blacktop roofs on the connected porches.
Without Alfie following his boy out the window, the child could have easily fallen off the narrow porch rooftops. Without Alfie’s barking, neighbors would never have known what was going on, and been able to grab the young adventurer.
The boy’s father, Phillip Redmond Sr. is grateful to both dog and neighbors for saving his son — and also embarrassed. He takes responsibility for the window escape, saying he didn’t think his son could get out the broken window. Police did question the parents, and have taken young Phillip to stay with relatives until the incident has been thoroughly investigated.
Forget Lassie… Alfie the German Shepherd is my hero today. German Shepherds are often known for their intelligence; my Miko was half German Shepherd and was smart as anything. I can think of several times he saved my life — late night drives home from my then-boyfriend’s house, I would be starting to nod off at the wheel and Miko would poke my shoulder to wake me up.