My chihuahua saved my life--a true story

I am new to this forum. I have often heard about how science now thinks that dogs can detect illnesses in humans, such as cancer and epilepsy. After reading several articles on the internet that seem to confirm this, I want to tell my story.

I want to emphasize that every word of this is absolutely true.

This happened to me on March 27, 2011. I am a 56 year old male, single, living alone in a rural area of Nebraska except for my 10 year old fawn colored female chihuhua, "Meekles" (pronounced "mee-kels"--my nephew gave her that name). She was given to me as a pup by my sister, and she is truly my little Precious, the Light of My Life and my best friend.

This was on a Sunday morning. Since I work during the week at a daytime job and am not at home during the daytime, my chi is usually in the habit of sleeping during the daytime hours. This also happens during the weekends when I am home. She mostly rests during the day even though I am up and about.

It was about 11 AM and I was doing sitting at my computer. Suddenly I got what can best be described as a "ping" in my chest. It wasn't particularly painful, but it was something I had never felt before. This was followed by a feeling of "fullness" that seemed to be in my stomach. I got up and went into the parlor to sit down. After awhile, my chihuhua came and sat down next to me. She started acting very peculiar. She kept looking at me and was whining like she wanted something. She stood on my lap and pawed at my thigh, looking me straight in the face. I still didn't feel quite right, so I went to my bed to lay down for awhile. Meekles followed me into the bedroom, and after I lay down she was by the bed whining and barking at me. Again this was very unusual for her to do this, as usually she would be resting at this time. After a few minutes resting in bed I still didn't feel quite right. I got up and suddenly I got sick to my stomach. I began to get concerned at this point, because I know this was very unusual for me. I have always had good health and seldom get sick. I went to sit in my parlor chair again, and again my chi came out and was what I can best describe as "anxious" about me: looking at me and whining and scratching at my foot.

At this point I decided that I should drive myself to the hospital. I thought I would just go there and they would check me over and tell me it was gastritis or the flu or something. Again--I didn't feel really sick. I thought if I just laid down and rested I would feel better. But the strange behavior of my chi seemed to be telling me something was wrong.

When I walked into the emergency room, the first thing they did was hook me up to an ECG. Within 30 seconds, the doctor told me "Mr. XXXX--you are having a heart attack". I was Life-Flighted to the hospital in Omaha, where I was given emergency angioplasty and stent placement.

After 7 days I was discharged and came back home. The good thing is that I came out of this with no heart damage. The doctors told me the critical thing was that I came in time so that they were able to remove the blockage before any heart muscle had been damaged.

When I look back on this, I think how it could easily have been otherwise. I could have just spent the day resting in bed, hoping to get better. This would have been disastrous, as I would have just started feeling sicker and sicker and could have had major heart damage. As the months have passed since, I have come more and more to the conclusion that my dear Meekles saved my life. I am absolutely convinced she sensed something was fundamentally wrong, and her concern for me saved my life. She may be a little dog but she has a BIG heart and is truly my Hero.

I have attached a picture of my Heroine Angel.

Again I want to emphasize this is a 100% true story.