Meet Hero, an incredible German shepherd that went from living life as a stray dog to being hailed as a woman’s savior after rushing to save her from a car crash!
To get the full scope of Hero’s incredible story, let’s rewind back to 13 years ago, in 2007, where Hero’s unbelievable journey began.
The beautiful stray dog was going about mozying through the woods where he was living in the state of Georgia. That’s when a woman by the name of Shannon Lorio wrecked her car not far from him.
Source: Youtube Screenshot/Carlos Aguilar
Lorio had been distracted by the argument her and her husband had just gotten in and was simply using the drive take a breather and calm down. Unfortunately, the weather had other plans for Lorio and her car because the route she took was being whipped by winds and as she took a turn sharper than she thought, she lost all control.
Lorio, upset and frustrated, had been speeding through the curves, and when the impact hit her full force, it ejected her from the driver’s seat and sent her slamming through the back window of the car.
When Lorio came to, she realized that half of her body was hanging out of the back window while her bottom half was still in the back seat, and she was in agonizing pain.
Source: Youtube Screenshot/Carlos Aguilar
The place where Lorio’s car went flying off the road into the woods wasn’t very visible from the road itself, and the injured driver began to think the worst, that she would die before anyone could find her to help.
In the midst of her panic and floating in and out of consciousness, Lorio suddenly became aware of a large presence standing over her.
“I don’t know when I came to, but when I did come to, I felt his huge presence. I could feel his breath. The dog…I don’t know how he came across me, but I thank God that he did,” she says in the video below.
Source: Youtube Screenshot/Carlos Aguilar
Grateful to know she wasn’t completely alone, Lorio slipped back into unconsciousness after realizing the dog had found her.
She awoke again in utter disbelief. The stray dog that found her had jumped up and somehow, miraculously, pulled Lorio from crushed her vehicle. Not only had the heroic shepherd pulled her from the car, but he had ahold of the hood of Lorio’s jacket in his mouth and was doing his best to pull her up to the road.
This angel of a dog wrestled to drag the woman for over one hundred feet until she was right near the road she had been driving on, where she would be visible.
Even though it wasn’t easy, the dog refused to give up on dragging Lorio to safety and his determination gave the woman all the motivation she needed to start fighting to survive.
Source: Youtube Screenshot/Carlos Aguilar
Hero, a complete stranger to Lorio, continued to stand over her after he had dragged her toward the road. Using his solidness, she wrapped her arms around the stray dog’s neck to pull herself up and onto her feet.
just as Lorio got to her feet, a car happened to be driving by and she was able to wave them down. Crawling into the back of the driver’s car, she told them she had crashed her car and needed them to call her husband, then quickly fell back into unconsciousness.
Source: Youtube Screenshot/Carlos Aguilar
When Lorio came to again this time she was in a hospital, and the doctor was telling her she was suffering from cranial bleeding. Fortunately, she didn’t end up needing surgery and was allowed to go home to recover further, but it wouldn’t have been so without the help of her guardian angel, the stray dog.
Throughout her recovery, she could only think of one thing, the German shepherd who found and saved her right when she needed to be saved the most.
“This dog, he did everything. He’s an amazing animal, he really is.”
Lorio later found out that her hero dog had been picked up and delivered to the Humane Society after the stray had come to her rescue.
It didn’t take long for word of Lorio’s hero dog to spread around town, though, and soon the canine found himself going home with Heidi Drawdy, a dog trainer for canine search and rescue that came in and adopted him when she heard about his heroic efforts.
Source: Youtube Screenshot/Carlos Aguilar
It took less than a year for Hero to pass all of his courses and become a working certified search and rescue canine!
Hero had unbelievable skills as a rescuer before he had ever received any training at all. Now it’s 2019, thirteens years after that life-saving encounter with Lorio, and the once-stray dog has now saved innumerable lives!
When Lorio found out that the dog had been adopted and trained to work in search and rescue, she couldn’t think of any home or situation more suited to him.
“I told him you’ll always be my hero. That’s what everybody started to call him. And that’s how he got his name,” she says as she wipes tears of gratitude from her face.
Source: Youtube Screenshot/Carlos Aguilar
If it hadn’t been for Hero, Lorio and countless others might not be here with us today. It’s amazing how by choosing to help a hurt woman, this dog cemented his own destiny and ended up right where he was supposed to in life, being a hero!
To learn more about this amazing dog’s heroic actions, watch the video below.
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