On a late March evening, a six-year-old girl was being buried in the cemetery.The small coffin, adorned with wildflowers, caught the attention of the hundred or so individuals who had gathered.The girl’s father stood still, devastated by the loss.
The silence was suddenly broken by the sound of paws.A German Shepherd named Dakota pushed her way through the crowd in defiance of the handler’s commands.With apparent determination, she jumped on top of the coffin and froze there, as if hiding something underneath.She grew and refused to go, keeping what seemed to be a secret when efforts to remove her failed.
The girl’s father saw that Dakota’s behavior was a warning sign rather than a sign of sorrow.Then the dog let out a familiar, low whimper, the same sound she made when she believed the girl was about to attack.
The father believed Dakota could be spotting something, so he had insisted on opening the coffin.After considerable persuasion, the funeral director agreed.
…As the coffin lid began to slowly rise, the crowd held their breath.What the dog had been guarding made people frightened.
Inside, the child’s face appeared calm, as if she were sleeping.But it was immediately clear that she was breathing.
A scream was heard.The accompanying doctor rushed to the coffin, put his ear to her chest, and cried out:
She’s still alive!She’s still alive!Give an ambulance a call immediately!
The father was in disbelief at what he was witnessing until he heard a quiet but sincere moan.He fell to his knees and started crying.
His daughter was still alive, even though everyone had already begun to grieve her.The doctors had been misled by a rare and almost undetectable condition of slow sleep that needed careful examination.Too soon, she had been declared dead.
But how had Dakota known?
Eventually, the answer was found.Since the girl had suffered convulsions that almost ruined her vital signs, the dog had been trained to detect even the slightest changes in her breathing and pulse.
Dakota has often prevented her parents’ deaths by alerting them before the ambulance arrived.And after the physicians had given up, Dakota realized this time it wasn’t death.
She was the last to hear her tiny owner’s breath and the only one who refused to accept the end.
